The Pietà

This Pietà – the Virgin Mary mourning over the dead Christ – is based on a lithograph after a painting by Eugène Delacroix. Van Gogh painted it during his confinement at the mental hospital in Saint-Rémy. It is more a variation on the original than a true copy. The painter adopted both the subject and composition but executed it in his own color and style. As he wrote to his brother Theo, the pretext for the painting was an accident which had occurred during his illness: “The Delacroix lithograph La Pietà, as well as several others, fell into my oils and paints and was damaged. This upset me terribly, and I am now busy making a painting of it, as you will see.” Today is van Gogh's birthday.