Vincent van Gogh - The Prison Courtyard Notebook

The Prison Courtyard / Prisoners Exercising / Prisoners' Round - after Gustave Doré, painted in 1890 in oil on canvas by Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Van Gogh adapted the scene from Gustave Doré's engraving of the exercise yard at Newgate Prison in London. Prisoners move in an endless circle beneath towering walls, while the original black-and-white design is transformed by deep blues, greens and ochres. He made the work during a period when he was copying prints by artists he admired, treating the exercise as a painterly interpretation rather than a literal reproduction.