A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-Paul

A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-Paul (1889) takes its name from the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum and the surrounding Provençal farmland — the mas being the traditional Provençal farmhouse. Van Gogh painted the meadows and fields surrounding the asylum repeatedly during his year there, finding in the enclosed, familiar landscape a source of productive calm between episodes of illness. The Kröller-Müller Museum, which holds this and several other major Saint-Rémy works, acquired them in the early twentieth century through Helene Kröller-Müller's passionate advocacy for Van Gogh's art.

The meadow is painted with Van Gogh's rhythmic, energized impasto — grasses and flowers rendered in short, varied strokes that create a surface of dense visual energy. The mountains behind the mas are rendered more broadly, and the high sky with its intense blue gives the composition a sense of open, breathing space despite the enclosed subject.