Iris

In May 1889 Van Gogh checked himself into the asylum at Saint-Rémy, in the south of France, after the breakdown that had cost him part of his ear. In his first weeks there he was not allowed far, so he painted what was close by, the overgrown garden inside the walls. This is a single iris, seen up close and low to the ground, its sword-shaped leaves crowding around the stem. He scattered small yellow touches through the grass for the other wildflowers, each one set down with real care. He would paint a whole bed of irises that same spring, but this is just the one plant, given the whole canvas to itself.