Tree Roots

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Tree Roots
Vincent van Gogh - Tree Roots and Trunks (F816).jpg
Artist Vincent van Gogh
Year 1890
Catalogue F816, JH2113
Type Oil on canvas
Dimensions 50.0 cm × 100.0 cm (19.7 in × 40.6 in)
Location Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Tree Roots is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh that he painted in July 1890 when he lived in Auvers-sur-Oise, France.[1][2] The painting is an example of the double-square canvases that he employed in his last landscapes.[3]

Background

Van Gogh spent the last few months of his life in Auvers-sur-Oise, a small town just north of Paris, after he left an asylum at Saint-Rémy in May 1890.[4] The painting is considered by some to be his last painting before his death late July 1890.[Works 1]

Jan Hulsker considers it the most original of his double-square canvases. The viewer thinks he can identify tree roots and trunks, but is hard put to identify the subject as a whole.[5] Van der Veen and Knapp comment that in this painting, as also in Undergrowth with Two Figures, the painting itself and not the subject is pre-eminent, heralding abstract painting and German expressionism.[6]

As far back as 1882, while at The Hague, van Gogh had made a study of tree roots, Study of a Tree (below), which he had completed at the same time as a larger version (now lost) of Sorrow. In a letter to his brother Theo, van Gogh said that he wanted to express something of life's struggle in these drawings.[Letters 1] It is not known whether he had returned to the same thoughts with his 1890 Tree Roots. The letters give no hint and the colours are perhaps too bright for such sombre thoughts.[Works 1]

  • A couple are walking in the woods. There are flowers everywhere and the tree trunks are violet. The couple seem almost to merge into the woods.

    Undergrowth with Two Figures, oil on canvas 50 x 100, late June 1890 (F773, JH2041).[7][Letters 2][Letters 3]

  • A drawing of gnarled black tree roots

    Tree roots in a sandy ground ('Les racines'), pencil, black chalk, brush in ink, brown and grey wash, opaque watercolour on watercolour paper, April-May 1882,Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (F933, JH142).[7][7][Letters 1]

Works

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Letters

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

References

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  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Hulsker (1980) p. 476
  6. ↑ van der Veen and Knapp (2010) pp. 164, 242
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "group.3D" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "group.3D" defined multiple times with different content

Bibliography

  • de la Faille, Jacob-Baart. The Works of Vincent van Gogh: His Paintings and Drawings. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1970. ISBN 978-1-55660-811-7
  • Hulsker, Jan. The Complete Van Gogh. Oxford: Phaidon, 1980. ISBN 0-7148-2028-8
  • Naifeh, Steven; Smith, Gregory White. Van Gogh: The Life. Profile Books, 2011. ISBN 978-1-84668-010-6
  • van der Veen, Wouter; Knapp, Peter. Van Gogh in Auvers: His Last Days. Monacelli Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-58093-301-8
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