In 1889, Saint Rémy de Provence was a small provincial town, already prosperous thanks to the arrival of the train and the cultivation of teasel thistle and its seeds. It was a rural village, home to a local bourgeoisie and already enjoying a certain prosperity and attractiveness. Unknowingly, this population would coexist with a painter who had arrived there for health reasons. For a year, one of the most important pages in the history of art would be written, without the population being truly aware of it.

The “mad artist” would, however, make Saint-Rémy-de-Provence famous, and his works would later be exhibited around the world. How would the city gradually become aware of this unintentional legacy? How would it promote it, draw inspiration from it to develop artistic, cultural, economic, and tourism projects?

This is one of the first books to focus exclusively on Van Gogh’s very prolific period in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. One of the chosen angles, unprecedented in the literature devoted to the artist, is to recount the ties that the commune and its residents may have had with him, during his lifetime or posthumously. The book includes testimonies from Saint-Rémy families whose members met or worked with the painter, owned works, or were closely linked to his work after his death.