Did You Know?

The small town depicted in Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” is Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, in the south of France. Van Gogh painted the work while he was a patient at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, a psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy. Presently, the hospital has a wing named after the painter. Vincent (as he preferred to be known) often checked himself into the “asylum” when he felt he needed it. He was allowed to go out and paint—and noted that he felt his most sane when painting.