A ring of prisoners marches slowly in a tight circle at the center of a high-walled courtyard, their heads bowed and hands clasped behind their backs. The prison yard is enclosed by looming brick walls, painted in a patchwork of blue, green, ochre, and hints of red, with small arched windows high above the prisoners’ heads. Light falls unevenly across the scene, illuminating the upper bricks in warmer tones and casting the lower yard in deep blue and green shadows.

The ground is rendered with short, rhythmic brushstrokes in blue, green, and violet, echoing the restless movement of the prisoners’ feet. The composition is tightly framed, emphasizing the claustrophobic atmosphere and the sense of confinement within the high, unyielding walls. In the lower right corner, two figures stand apart from the prisoners, dressed in dark coats and hats, seemingly observing the scene.

Along the back wall, a row of prisoners stands motionless in shadow, their forms less distinct and faces obscured. Three small, arched windows on the right wall are outlined with thick blue lines, each set at a slightly different height. A single, narrow window pierces the far wall above the prisoners’ heads, its arch surrounded by pale blue brushstrokes.

The brickwork is rendered in horizontal and diagonal strokes, with green, ochre, and blue alternating in irregular patterns. The upper left corner of the painting is dominated by a cool greenish-blue, contrasting with the warmer ochres on the sunlit bricks higher up. The shadows on the courtyard floor create a patchwork of blue and violet rectangles, echoing the direction of the brushwork and reinforcing the sense of enclosure. The scene is based on an 1872 engraving by Gustave Doré showing the exercise yard at Newgate Prison, which Vincent van Gogh reinterpreted in February 1890 while at Saint-Paul Asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.

Unable to paint outdoors during his stay at the asylum, Van Gogh turned to copying works by other artists, including this subject, using a woodblock reproduction by Héliodore Pisan as his model.