Print of Vincent van Gogh - Arles hospital ward - 1889
Vincent van Gogh - Arles hospital ward or Arles hospital ward
Year: 1889 - oil on canvas cm 92x74
Preserved at: Oskar Reinhart Am Römerholz Collection, Winterthur, Switzerland.
Vincent van Gogh represents the dormitory of the Hotel-Dieu, the old hospital of Arles, where he was hospitalized from December 1888 to May 1889.
There are two rows of beds sheltered by curtains, on either side of the long chamber. Some nuns walk down the aisle to check and provide assistance, while the sick are seated around the stove, which is in the center of the corridor, some to warm up, some to smoke or read the newspaper. Only one chair on the left is empty and it is very similar to the one painted by van Gogh in another painting: perhaps it is that of the painter.
