Prisoners Exercising (Prisoners Round)
Appreciation
Prisoners Exercising (Prisoners Round) Nederland Vincent van Gogh Gallery and Appreciation
Prisoners Exercising (also known as Prisoners' Round) was painted during Vincent van Gogh's stay at the asylum in Saint-Rémy. During the month of February, 1890 Van Gogh produced a number of paintings that were copies of works by other artists. Vincent wrote to Theo: "I have tried making copies of Men Drinking by Daumier and The Prison by Doré; it is very difficult." In fact, in this letter alone Van Gogh makes reference to two other copies he was working on (after paintings by Delacroix and Millet).
The original of this work, Newgate: The Exercise Yard, was drawn by Gustav Doré (1833-83) and published in the volume "London, a Pilgrimage" by Blanchard Jerrold (London, 1872). Van Gogh was a great admirer of the English engravings of that period in which social hardships were harshly but realistically featured.
Prisoners Exercising is one of the most striking copies of Van Gogh's career. The subject matter itself is of particular interest, given Vincent's own self-imposed internment. Dr. Jan Hulsker comments: "There is, however, considerable support for the view that an element of biographical association is to be found here. Can it really be that Prisoners' Round embodies an unspoken criticism of the deadly monotony of life at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole? Nobody can tell."