This elaborate sketch is a reproduction of a painting made by Van Gogh at the Saint-Remy-de-Provence asylum in September 1889. The artist was recovering from a mental crisis that had lasted about two weeks and during which he had tried to commit suicide by drinking turpentine and eating paint. The letter is certainly not cheerful, but shows that the painter is working, reading and writing again. The view is the one seen through the bars of his window. This is a symbolic subject for a painter who believed he would recover completely only if allowed to work as much as possible. The setting sun appears as a gloomy omen of what was to come.