A Return to Van Gogh’s St. Remy

ST. REMY, France —  Wherever you wander in this small market town or the surrounding Provencal countryside, midway between Arles and Avignon, there is a chance that you will be walking through a landscape by Vincent Van Gogh.

The artist set up his easel under the plane trees on the Boulevard Mirabeau . . . in the olive groves bordering the entrance to the asylum of St. Paul de Mausole . . . at the window of his cell opening on a panorama of yellow corn fields, writhing cypresses and pale mountain crests . . . and in the gardens outside his door where he found his now-famous bed of irises.

This is the centennial year of Van Gogh’s death by suicide and we were drawn back to St. Remy, as we have been in the past, because of its association with the great Impressionist.

The artist spent a year at the asylum as a voluntary patient after mutilating his left ear with a razor in reaction to a violent quarrel with Paul Gauguin, his guest in Arles. His desperation was evident in a letter to his brother, Theo: “I should like to be shut up for a while as much for my own peace of mind as for others’.” And to a friend: “I’m not fit to govern myself and my affairs.”

His stay at the former medieval monastery, often under close confinement, was the cruelest and yet perhaps the most creative year of his life.

Although Van Gogh was in Arles three months longer than in St. Remy, there is little left to connect him to the former city. The locales for many of his most famous paintings--the yellow house, the pool room, the sidewalk cafe and the railroad station--were blown to rubble during World War II.

But in St. Remy, 12 miles away, the landscapes and other subjects of his work look almost exactly as they did 100 years ago. Many of the same buildings still stand along the Boulevard Mirabeau, where Van Gogh and Edouard Manet stood together at their easels to paint a work crew repaving the street.

It is only a short walk from the town center to St. Paul’s, where one can photograph scenes closely resembling the Dutch master’s paintings.

But most visitors to St. Remy stop short of the asylum to visit the Greco-Roman town of Glanum or fly past it on Route D5 on their way to the nearby ruins of the ancient citadel of Les Baux. In contrast to the crowds at those always popular tourist attractions, we had St. Paul’s to ourselves in late April, except for three art students who, after much debate, had set up their easels in the precise positions Van Gogh had once chosen.

To our disappointment, the bronze statue of the artist along the wall of the cloister was no longer there. A sign hanging from the plinth read: “This sculpture by Zadkine was taken by vandals in the night on Jan. 29 or 30, 1989.”

In harsh weather or when his doctor thought he was too unstable to leave his cell, Van Gogh spent long hours painting the now-familiar vistas beyond his one small window. But his cell is no longer open to the public. Another mental patient occupies it now.

One of his first canvasses from St. Remy, “Irises,” is now on permanent exhibit at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu. The museum is thought to have spent between $50 and $60 million for this work by an artist who sold only one painting in his own lifetime--to the sister of a friend--and who was constantly on the verge of poverty. Nor did the director of St. Paul’s think much of Van Gogh’s work while he was still alive. A request by the head sister, Epiphane, to hang one of his paintings in the asylum was peremptorily denied.

Despite the lyricism of “Irises” and other early works at St. Paul’s, the artist was in constant fear of his fellow inmates. “One is always hearing howls and cries like beasts in a zoo,” he wrote Theo. One patient tried to attack Van Gogh physically whenever they met.

Another of the artist’s fears--that his insanity was a recurring and permanent affliction--had a dramatic and somber effect on his work. His interest in human subjects at Arles--the Zouave soldier, the family Roulin, Madame Ginoux--frequently gave way at St. Remy to the convulsions of nature, such as the madly whirling nebulae as shown in “The Starry Night.”

The Office of Tourism in St. Remy, just a block off the town square, publishes a free brochure with a map and color photographs that enable the visitor to match Van Gogh’s landscapes with the terrain as it is today.

Among the sites are the field of poppies along the outer wall of St. Paul’s, the asylum and its cloister, the olive fields, the white flanks of Les Alpilles--the Little Alps--and the quarry on a hillside above the hospice.

Early in his stay at St. Remy, Van Gogh wrote that “ . . . it’s fun working in rather savage places, where one has to wedge the easel in between the stones to prevent everything being blown over by the wind.”

But one of those “rather savage places”--the quarry--was the scene of his most violent mental collapse at St. Remy. His easel, palette and brushes were torn from his grasp by the howling mistral. . When his attempts to retrieve them were futile, he tried to kill himself by swallowing his paints.

Van Gogh was a patient at the hospice from May 8, 1889, to May 16, 1890. Then, homesick for the north and eager to be with his brother, he went to live with a Dr. Gachet, a friend of other Impressionist painters, at Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris.

Just days before his departure from St. Remy, and despite the terrors of the asylum, he wrote Theo: “I can scarcely bear to leave . . . This morning, I saw the country again after the rain. It was so fresh . . . and the flowers!” Only weeks after his arrival at Auvers, he shot himself to death. Theo died six months later.

The monastery of St. Paul and the town of St. Remy can lay claim to famous residents other than Van Gogh. Dr. Albert Schweitzer, a German citizen, was kept prisoner at the hospice by the French during World War I.

The 16th-Century astronomer Nostradamus was born in St. Remy. The composers Charles Gounod and Cesar Franck and the poet Frederic Mistral found it a congenial place to work. And, of course, the Val d’Enfer--the Valley of Hell, only a l5-minute drive from St. Remy in the gorge below Les Baux--is said to have been given its name by Dante, a frequent visitor to this part of Provence.

St. Remy lies within medieval walls and is notable for its fountains and gardens, the ranks of plane trees along its principal streets and for its art galleries, antique shops and cafes, many of them hidden away in alleyways or cul-de-sacs.

But it is best to visit St. Remy in the off-season, when visitors to Glanum and Les Baux no longer jam the streets, hotels and restaurants.

In the spring and fall, it is actually possible to find a parking place in the main square--the Place de la Republique. English-language newspapers are not sold out within minutes of arrival at the newsstand. And waiters and shopkeepers, no longer harried by hordes of demanding tourists, are suddenly cordial to their dwindling clientele.

GUIDEBOOK

St. Remy de Provence

Getting there: Driving north or south on Autoroute A7, exit at the Cavaillon turnoff and take Route N99 to St. Remy, six miles to the west. From Arles, take Route N570 and turn east on N99. From Avignon, follow N570 south to the junction of N99 and east to St. Remy.

The closest railway station to St. Remy is at Avignon, where most of the major car rental companies have offices. There is also bus service from Avignon and Arles to St. Remy.

Where to stay: Chateau des Alpilles, a luxurious 19th-Century mansion set within its own park, a five-minute drive west of the town center. About $110-$145 per night, double occupancy. Many of its 16 rooms have kitchenettes. Pool and tennis courts. Closed from January to mid-March. Route D31, St. Remy de Provence 13210, France, local telephone 90-92-03-33.

Chateau de Roussan, an 18th-Century country home made into a hotel after World War II, retains much of its former warmth and charm. Fifteen acres of parkland assure quiet and privacy. About $60-$95. Closed late October to late March. Route de Tarascon, St. Remy de Provence 13210, phone 90-92-11-63.

Le Castelet des Alpilles, another old family mansion just off the town square. Many of the 20 rooms overlook gardens. About $60-$85. Closed Oct. 30 to March 24; 6 Place Mireille, St. Remy de Provence 13210, phone 90-92-07-21.

St. Remy also has a number of more modest hostelries, with prices to match and baths with most rooms. The more comfortable include:

Les Antiques, 15 Ave. Pasteur, 27 rooms, phone 90-92-03-02, $60-$75; Le Chalet Fleuri, 15 Ave. Frederic Mistral, 12 rooms, phone 90-92-03-62, $30-$45; Villa Glanum, 46 Ave. Vincent Van Gogh, 23 rooms, phone 90-92-03-59, $30-$50, and La Palette, annex of the Cafe des Arts, 30 Blvd. Victor Hugo, 17 rooms, phone 90-92-08-50, $30-$45.

Where to eat: St. Remy has many quality restaurants where prices range from about $40-$70 for two without wine. The dining rooms of the more prestigious hotels obviously fall into the latter category, and, in general, have a more diverse menu.

Our favorite among the less expensive is the Cafe des Arts, 30 Blvd. Victor Hugo. The menu includes the hearty daubes and seafood specialties of Provence and the rich soups, pastas and cacciatores of the founder’s native Italy. Figure about $25-$35 for two. The clientele ranges from boisterous young artists to sedate farm couples (but the latter only for Sunday dinner). Closed on Wednesdays and from end of October until Jan. 3.

Bistro des Alpilles, 15 Blvd. Mirabeau, is in the same price range as Cafe des Arts. Features the local lamb with Provencal herbs and a hearty fish soup that’s a meal in itself. Open year-round except Sundays.

For more information: The French Government Tourist Office has a number--(900) 420-2003--that costs 50 cents per minute to call. Or write to the office at 9454 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 303, Beverly Hills 90212.