13. Vincent van Gogh, Dutch, French school, 1853-1890. The Road Menders at Saint-Rémy (also known as Large Plane Trees), 1889. Oil on canvas, 73.7 x 92.1 cm. Gift of the Hanna Fund, 1947.209

Dating to 1889, The Road Menders at Saint-Rémy was painted during Vincent van Gogh's voluntary stay at the mental hospital at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. In a letter of December 7, 1889, to his brother, Theo, he describes this painting: "The last study I have done is a view of the village, where they were working--under enormous plane trees--repairing the pavement. So there are heaps of sand, stones, and gigantic trunks--the leaves yellowing and here and there you get a glimpse of a house front and small figures."

Towering above the barely seen road menders are the large plane trees described by van Gogh. With nervous and exaggerated brush strokes of yellow, brown, orange, and red paint, the golden colors of fall are captured in this painting. Spontaneity was so important to van Gogh that he felt his work was ruined if he waited to paint a scene from memory. Thus, when he realized he had no canvas on which to paint The Road Menders at Saint-Rémy, he began painting on a piece of red diamond-patterned linen.

Van Gogh was born in 1853 at Groot-Zundert, Northern Brabant (Holland), the son of a pastor. Before devoting his life to painting, van Gogh worked as an art dealer, an instructor at a small private school, and a missionary, among other occupations. Supported financially by his brother, Theo, who was an art dealer in Paris, van Gogh began concentrating on a career in painting in 1880. Following the Dutch tradition, his paintings from 1880 to 1885 often depicted peasants with a dark and somber lighting. After traveling to Paris, where he met the impressionist and post-impressionist artists, his palette became lighter, and the somber lighting of Holland was replaced by the bright and vibrant light of France. His dream was to establish an artists' colony, and in 1888 van Gogh rented a house in Arles, France, which he shared with Paul Gauguin. After a series of devastating seizures, he admitted himself to the hospital at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. He killed himself the following year at the age of 37.

Throughout his life van Gogh was plagued by periodic mental breakdowns. While the source of his affliction is unclear, he has often been associated with the myth of the "mad genius" whose expressive paintings were the result of his illness. Although van Gogh was an artistic genius and did suffer from breakdowns, his paintings were created during states of absolute lucidity. His career spanned only ten years, but his use of color to express emotion has profoundly influenced 20th-century artists.

Vivian Kung and Patricia Richmond
Teacher Resource Center
Department of Education and Public Programs

© 1997 The Cleveland Museum of Art