Did you know some of the most famous landscapes in art history were painted from memory behind asylum walls?

In the summer of 1889, Vincent van Gogh was voluntarily confined at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum. From his window, he watched the seasons change over a single enclosed wheat field, capturing its quiet beauty again and again.

For this piece, he tried a different approach. Guided by his past collaboration with Gauguin, Van Gogh painted this glowing moonrise over the Alpilles mountains largely from his imagination. He originally added delicate purple brushstrokes to enhance the melancholic nighttime feel, though time has faded them to the white stripes we see today.

There is a deeply contemplative energy in these sweeping brushstrokes. It serves as a beautiful reminder of how we can find vast wonder and emotion even when our own world feels restricted.

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