Garden with Flowers 1888

Vincent van Gogh rendered "Garden with Flowers" with pen and ink on paper. Van Gogh’s choice of subject matter – a garden teeming with life – provides a lens through which to consider his emotional and psychological state. During his stay at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum, the garden became a sanctuary, a place of refuge from the internal turmoil he experienced. “I felt my brain soothed,” Van Gogh wrote about nature. The absence of color in this drawing encourages us to focus on the intricate details of the garden itself. Look at the way the artist uses different patterns to distinguish between the various elements of the composition. Note the marks that define each individual flower, each leaf, and each blade of grass. These details invite us to consider the therapeutic role of art in Van Gogh’s life. In rendering them so carefully, he transformed feelings of isolation into moments of connection.