Yale Art Gallery Lecture, Vincent van Gogh’s Turning Points: Van Gogh and the Asylum at Saint-Rémy

In May 1890, after a prolonged breakdown, van Gogh moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, a town 20 miles from Paris, to be cared for by a well-known homeopath, Dr. Paul Gachet. For two months, he worked hard when his health and the weather permitted. His landscapes from the last months of his life are broadly and forcefully painted, and there are a few heartfelt portraits. He died in midsummer by his own hand. This lecture considers the power of these last paintings as well as van Gogh’s lack of financial success and fame during his lifetime, the posthumous steep rise of his reputation and influence, and the Romantic myths that infuse his biography.