Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. His oeuvre includes landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits, most of which are characterised by bold colours and dramatic brushwork that contributed to the rise of expressionism in modern art. Van Gogh’s work was only beginning to gain critical attention before he died from a self-inflicted gunshot at age 37. During his lifetime, only one of Van Gogh’s paintings, The Red Vineyard, was sold.
This is one of five pictures of olive orchards that Van Gogh made in November 1889. Painted directly from nature but animated by Seurat-like stippling and stylized passages of broken color, these works responded to recent compositions by Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard. “What I’ve done is a rather harsh and coarse realism beside their abstractions,” Van Gogh observed, “but it will nevertheless impart a rustic note, and will smell of the soil.”
This is one of five pictures of olive orchards that Van Gogh made in November 1889. Painted directly from nature but animated by Seurat-like stippling and stylized passages of broken color, these works responded to recent compositions by Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard. “What I’ve done is a rather harsh and coarse realism beside their abstractions,” Van Gogh observed, “but it will nevertheless impart a rustic note, and will smell of the soil.”
Vincent van Gogh - Olive Trees
