Description In May 1889, Van Gogh voluntarily committed himself to an asylum near the small town of Saint-Rmy in Provence. His doctors soon gave him permission to paint on day excursions to surrounding fields. While walking through Saint-Rmy that November, he was impressed by the sight of men repairing a road beneath immense plane trees. 'In spite of the cold,' he wrote to his brother, 'I have gone on working outside till now, and I think it is doing me good and the work too.' Rushing to capture the yellowing leaves, he painted this composition on an unusual cloth with a pattern of small red diamonds visible in the picture's many unpainted areas.