There’s nothing quite like a relaxing mountain view at Saint-Rémy after a particularly rough mental episode in which you cut off your ear with a razor and try to give it to a prostitute who then passes out in shock.

The piece is one of the 150 works van Gogh completed during his year-long stay at Saint-Rémy hospital. His check-in at Saint-Rémy was voluntary after his notorious breakdown during which he cut off the end of his ear with a razor. Ear-y stuff. 

Van Gogh actually worked on Mountains at Saint-Rémy in the midst of what he believed was an oncoming mental attack. He said about his work on that piece that “...there is something sad in it which is healthy, and that is why it does not bore me.” And this was a constant theme for van Gogh in his work - the healing properties of nature. As is the case in Mountains at Saint-Rémy, van Gogh primarily worked with nature throughout his career, blaming cities for many of his mental issues and attributing regenerative qualities to rural living. Van Gogh shared this sentiment with his close friend and roommate, Gauguin, who after the ear incident retreated all the way to Tahiti to continue to make his own (but very different) rural-inspired art.

Initially van Gogh was not even allowed to step foot out of the hospital, but he still managed to produce massive amounts of work from within these strict parameters. His paintings of the hospital corridor, vases of flowers, and the garden wall would all become some of the most significant works in his career. The Irises, Wheatfield with Cypresses, Crows Over the Wheatfield, and Starry Night were among the most famous works that he produced during his year in the hospital. While in Saint-Rémy Van Gogh also reproduced famous works of other significant artists like Delacroix, Rembrandt, and Millet. Van Gogh’s productivity - 150 paintings in less than a year - seems the mark of a highly-functioning human, and it’s difficult to imagine him going out into a field outside of Saint-Rémy only a few months later and shooting himself.