Going down …
This 1890 work needs little explanation. Painted while Van Gogh was heavily depressed and in an asylum in Saint-Rémy, it is expressionism at its most maudlin.
Right round …
The circular trudge of the watched-over men so perfectly captures the mental rat runs the artist felt trapped in; you can almost hear the shuffle-thump of those boots.
London calling …
It is directly inspired by a depiction of Newgate exercise yard by one of Van Gogh’s favourite artists, the London-based print-maker Gustave Doré, who recreated his adopted city with a Dickensian sweep in the collection London: A Pilgrimage.
Colour me bad …
Doré’s black and white engraving plunges the men into shadow at the bottom of seemingly endless walls, with white sunlight anointing their heads. In Van Gogh’s version, the blues and golds blaze and pulse. Is it redemption or the intense feelings of mental illness?
Looking at you …
The central figure raising his head to reveal his sickly, green-tinged face is the artist himself.
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