39adamstrand:“Today I made a drawing which has turned out very dark and rather melancholy for

39adamstrand:

“Today I made a drawing which has turned out very dark and rather melancholy for one of spring… . I have a sort of hope that with what on the whole I know of my art, the time will come when I shall produce again, even in the asylum. What use would the more artificial life of an artist in Paris be to me? I should never be more than half taken in by it, and so should lack the initial enthusiasm indispensable to starting me off.It is amazing how well I am physically, but it isn’t enough to be the basis of any hope for its being the same with me mentally.I would willingly, once I am a little known there, try to become a hospital orderly little by little, in short, to work at something and have some occupation again - whatever presents itself.”

Letter from Vincent van Gogh to his brother Theo, 3 May 1889.

Van Gogh committed himself to the asylum in Saint-Rémy 5 days after this letter, where he would remain for almost a year.