Saint-Rémy-de-Provence

The home of astrologist Nostradumus, known in France as an outstanding physician and elsewhere in the world as prophet, is a popular tourist attraction in the town of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Nostradumus was born on rue Hoche and Mount Gaussier, also known as the Lion of Arles, is a place which it is believed, he went on walks to. The landmark was depicted by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) in "Le Mont Gaussier With The Mas de Saint-Paul", while staying at the Monastery Saint-Paul de Mausole, situated one kilometre outside Saint-Rémy. When van Gogh took up residence the monastery was surrounded by countryside. Augustinian monks lived there in the Middle Ages. After the French Revolution, and consequent religious reforms, the site was sold in 1806. A brochure advertised the asylum highlighted the billiards rooms, books and journals, to the prospective customers, with bills to be met by his brother Theo, in this instance, during Vincent's stay of one year. It seems to be the case that the place had seen better days: There were only ten male patients, although 30 rooms had been allocated, but this worked to van Gogh's advantage, as he got his own room, while only paying the lowest residential rate. To reinvigorate himself, he asked his brother to send reproductions of works by artists he admired - Rembrandt, Delacroix, Millet, among others. He made copies - "translations," he would call them - of their works that he hung on his bedroom wall. Because these reproductions contained figures, they served as the studio models he could not have. But they were more than surrogates. He compared his translations to a violinist's interpretation of Beethoven:

"I let the black and white by Delacroix or Millet or something made after their work pose for me as a subject. And then I improvise colour on it, not, you understand, altogether myself, but searching for memories of their pictures - but the memory, 'the vague consonance of colours which are at least right in feeling' - that is my own interpretation.... I find that it teaches me things, and above all it sometimes gives me consolation. And then my brush goes between my fingers as a bow would on the violin, and absolutely for my own pleasure."

Letter to Theo, Sept. 19, 1889.

Vincent van Gogh Paintings from Saint-Rémy