Toward the end of his life, Vincent van Gogh succumbed to his mental illness, cut off his own ear after a fight with friend Paul Gauguin, and in May 1889 committed himself to a mental hospital in Saint Remy. One year later he left the clinic, visited his brother in Paris, then went on to Auver-sur-Oise to stay and receive treatment from Dr. Paul Gachet. Toward the end of his stay at Saint Remy, van Gogh became nostalgic and reminisced over scenes from his childhood.
In the last 10 weeks of his life, while in the care of the doctor, he created over 100 pieces including The Church at Auvers, a scene from his youth created out of memory. This painting embodies van Gogh’s best work and a great example of his genre. Classically a post-impressionist piece, he uses rich vivid colors emphasizing shape and distorting form to express emotion.
The foreground seems to be in daylight, whereas the church itself and the sky seem to be in shadow, nearly a night scene. The church’s form is distorted adding a feel of gloom to the scene. Van Gogh wrote to his sister that it is “nearly the same thing as the studies I did in Nuenen of the old tower and the cemetery…” A church painted in this manner may reflect van Gogh’s feeling about the church and religion after his failed studies as a preacher and missionary.