Trees in the Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital

Van Gogh's Trees in the Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital, painted in 1889 and now at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, depicts the overgrown, lush garden of the asylum where he found both confinement and paradoxical freedom. The hospital garden's trees — old, irregular, with exposed root systems and overhanging branches — gave him the kind of complex natural subject he could observe at close range from within the grounds. The Hammer Museum's holding makes this accessible as part of the UCLA's outstanding art collection.

The garden trees are rendered with Van Gogh's most tactile Saint-Rémy technique — the bark textured through varied, energetic strokes, the foliage broken into individual marks of different colors. Root systems are given full observational attention. The palette is rich in the greens and ochres of the Mediterranean garden. The composition creates enclosure through the surrounding foliage.