Trees and Undergrowth (Van Gogh series)

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Trees and Undergrowth, 1887, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F307) Van Gogh - Baume und Unterholz.jpeg
Trees and Undergrowth, 1887, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F307)

Trees and Undergrowth is the subject of paintings that Vincent van Gogh made in Paris, Saint-Rémy and Auvers, from 1887 through 1890. Van Gogh made several paintings of undergrowth, a genre called "sous-bois" brought into prominence by artists of the Barbizon School and Impressionists. The works from this series successfully use shades of color and light in the forest or garden interior paintings. Van Gogh selected one of his Saint-Rémy paintings, Ivy (F609) for the Brussels Les XX exhibition in 1890.

Vincent van Gogh Influential Dutch Post-Impressionist painter (1853–1890)

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 about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. However, he was not commercially successful, and his suicide at 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty.

Paris Capital of France

Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an area of 105 square kilometres and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of 1 January 2019. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts.

Saint-Rémy-de-Provence Commune in Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur, France

Saint-Rémy-de-Provence is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France.

Contents

Sous-bois genre

Marie-Ferdinand de Dartein, Sous-bois a Ottrott, 1875 MF de Dartein-Sous-bois a Ottrott.jpg
Marie-Ferdinand de Dartein, Sous-bois à Ottrott, 1875

The woodland scene genre, or "sous-bois" in French for undergrowth, was popular with artists from the Barbizon School and Impressionists. [1]

Impressionism 19th-century art movement

Impressionism is a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities, ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles. Impressionism originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s.

Rather than painting landscapes from afar like traditional painters, 19th century rural painters climbed or walked into forested areas for a close view of wooded scenes. Paintings of the sous-bois, evoking the trees and grassy undergrowth, were often made vertically on canvas, as opposed to horizontal views of sweeping landscapes. In a sous-bois, the sky is barely visible, just a glimpse of sky sometimes penetrating the branches. This type of composition was rare before the 19th century when artists of the Barbizon School made paintings of forested areas in the Fontainebleau region of France. Close to the subject of the painting, artists painting sous-bois capture their experience in the forested scene. In German, the painting of interior forests was called Waldinneres, meaning enclosed woodland space. [2]

Forest of Fontainebleau forest in France

The forest of Fontainebleau is a mixed deciduous forest lying sixty kilometres southeast of Paris, France. It is located primarily in the arrondissement of Fontainebleau in the southwestern part of the department of Seine-et-Marne. Most of it also lies in the canton of Fontainebleau, although parts of it extend into adjoining cantons, and even as far west as the town of Milly-la-Forêt in the neighboring department, Essonne. Several communes lie within the forest, notably the towns of Fontainebleau and Avon. The forest has an area of 250 km2 (97 sq mi).

Paris

In Trees and Undergrowth (F309a) Van Gogh portrays the play of light falling through the trees to the low-lying plants in highlights of white, yellow and red. The effect of the light and shade produces many shades of green which van Gogh paints in short brushstrokes across the canvas. A horizon line is suggested by a line of yellow, suggesting a clearing beyond the cropping of trees and foliage. [1]

Centraal Museum museum in Utrecht, Netherlands

The Centraal Museum is the main museum in Utrecht, Netherlands, founded in 1838. The museum has a wide-ranging collection, mainly of works produced locally. The collection of the paintings by the Northern Mannerist Joachim Wtewael is by a long way the largest anywhere in the world. Other highlights are many significant paintings by the Utrecht Caravaggisti, such as Gerard van Honthorst and Hendrick ter Brugghen. Both of them travelled to Rome in the early 17th century to study the works of the Italian master Caravaggio. In the previous generation, as well as Wtewael, Abraham Bloemaert and the portraitist Paulus Moreelse were the most significant Utrecht painters, with Jan van Scorel still earlier.

Van Gogh Museum Art museum, National museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands

The Van Gogh Museum is one of the many art museums in the Netherlands dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The Van Gogh House can be visited in Zundert, a museum in Van Gogh's old residence. In the city of Tilburg, the old drawing room of Vincent van Gogh has been reconstructed. In the Van Gogh Town Nuenen you can see many monuments that Vincent van Gogh painted. The Vincetre is also located in Nuenen, a Museum about the life of Van Gogh.

Saint-Rémy

Undergrowth with Ivy July, 1889 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F745) Van Gogh - Unterholz mit Efeu1.jpeg
Undergrowth with Ivy
July, 1889
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F745)

Van Gogh explored the grounds of the asylum where he found an overgrown garden. He wrote, "Since I have been here, I have had enough work with the overgrown garden with its large pine trees, under which there grows tall and poorly-tended grass, mixed with all kinds of periwinkle." The paintings are of growth below ivy covered trees. [3]

Van Gogh Museum says of Undergrowth with Ivy (F745): "The effect of light and shade created an almost abstract pattern, with small arcs of paint covering the entire surface of the canvas." [3] The second Undergrowth with Ivy painting (F746), also of undergrowth beneath trees, is made with small brushstrokes to create a blurred image that also shows the effect of light shining through the shaded trees. [4]

Ivy, originally Le Lierre is a painting van Gogh made May 1889. [5] He incorporated the first version in his selection of works to be displayed at Les XX, Brussels, in 1890. [6]

Vincent's brother Theo, was quite impressed with his undergrowth, or sous-bois, paintings and that Ivy (F609) of this series was included in van Gogh's list of works to show at the Brussels Les XX in 1890. The same painting was on exhibit in Paris by Père Tanguy, who felt he would very likely sell it. [7]

Auvers

In 1975 wax was applied on the back of Undergrowth with Two Figures painting to "protect the canvas and secure the paint." Over more than three decades the wax has turned milky and the painting has lost its gloss. An art historian at the Cincinnati Art Museum is restoring the work, a painstaking process with a solvent to gently loosen and a cotton swab to remove the wax. A microscope is used see the detail. [8]

Dickens "Ivy Green"

Path of trees with ivy undergrowth, photograph Path through Dingle Dell - geograph.org.uk - 793323.jpg
Path of trees with ivy undergrowth, photograph

Whether describing ivy crawling up a home - or lit by rays of sun beneath trees, van Gogh enjoyed ivy and referred to Charles Dickens' poem "Ivy Green" in his early letters. [10]

"The Ivy Green" by Charles Dickens [11]
Oh, a dainty plant is the Ivy green, That creepeth o'er ruins old! Of right choice food are his meals, I ween, In his cell so lone and cold. The wall must be crumbled, the stone decayed, To pleasure his dainty whim: And the mouldering dust that years have made Is a merry meal for him. Creeping where no life is seen, A rare old plant is the Ivy green.
Fast he stealeth on, though he wears no wings, And a staunch old heart has he. How closely he twineth, how tight he clings To his friend the huge Oak Tree! And slyly he traileth along the ground, And his leaves he gently waves, As he joyously hugs and crawleth round The rich mould of dead men's graves. Creeping where grim death hath been, A rare old plant is the Ivy green.
Whole ages have fled and their works decayed, And nations have scattered been; But the stout old Ivy shall never fade, From its hale and hearty green. The brave old plant, in its lonely days, Shall fatten upon the past: For the stateliest building man can raise Is the Ivy's food at last. Creeping on where time has been, A rare old plant is the Ivy green.

The Trees and Undergrowth or sous-bois series of works he made in Paris and Saint-Rémy pay homage to Van Gogh's early letters about ivy. [12]

Related Research Articles

Portraits of Vincent van Gogh page of a Wikipedia list

This article refers to portraits of Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890). It includes self-portraits, portraits of him by other artists, and photographs, one of which is dubious. Van Gogh's dozens of self-portraits were an important part of his oeuvre as a painter. Most probably, van Gogh's self-portraits are depicting the face as it appeared in the mirror he used to reproduce his face, i.e. his right side in the image is in reality the left side of his face.

<i>The Starry Night</i> painting by Vincent van Gogh

The Starry Night is an oil on canvas by the Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an idealized village. It has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941, acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. Regarded as among Van Gogh's finest works, The Starry Night is one of the most recognized paintings in the history of Western culture.

<i>LArlésienne</i> (painting) 1888-1890 group of six similar paintings by Vincent van Gogh

L'Arlésienne, L'Arlésienne: Madame Ginoux, or Portrait of Madame Ginoux is the title given to a group of six similar paintings by Vincent van Gogh, painted in Arles, November 1888, and in Saint-Rémy, February 1890. L'Arlésienne is pronounced 'lar lay zyen'; it means literally "the woman from Arles".

Vincent van Gogh lived during the Impressionist era. With the development of photography, painters and artists turned to conveying the feeling and ideas behind people, places, and things rather than trying to imitate their physical forms. Impressionist artists did this by emphasizing certain hues, using vigorous brushstrokes, and paying attention to highlighting. Vincent van Gogh implemented this ideology to pursue his goal of depicting his own feelings toward and involvement with his subjects. Van Gogh's portraiture focuses on color and brushstrokes to demonstrate their inner qualities and van Gogh's own relationship with them.

Copies by Vincent van Gogh series of paintings by Vincent van Gogh

Copies by Vincent van Gogh form an important group of paintings executed by Vincent van Gogh between 1887 and early 1890. While at Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, where Van Gogh admitted himself, he strived to have subjects during the cold winter months. Seeking to be reinvigorated artistically, Van Gogh did more than 30 copies of works by some of his favorite artists. About twenty-one of the works were copies after, or inspired by, Jean-François Millet. Rather than replicate, Van Gogh sought to translate the subjects and composition through his perspective, color, and technique. Spiritual meaning and emotional comfort were expressed through symbolism and color. His brother Theo van Gogh would call the pieces in the series some of his best work.

<i>Daubignys Garden</i> painting series by Vincent van Gogh

Daubigny's Garden, painted three times by Vincent van Gogh, depicts the enclosed garden of Charles-François Daubigny, a painter whom Van Gogh admired throughout his life.

Vincent van Gogh's display at Les XX, 1890, in Brussels is an important testament to the recognition he received amongst avant-garde peers during his own lifetime. Participation in the annual exhibition of Les XX was for members and by invitation only. Van Gogh's choice proves that he was going for more than a simple selection of paintings he considered superior, but that he was willing to provide a well reasoned summary of his years of work in Provence. Evidently this notion remained neglected, and even more: it was washed away by the scandal his works provoked. Then the same works were again shown at the annual exhibition of the Artistes Indépendants in Paris which offered space for an expansion of the display: this was done by Theo van Gogh, the brother of Vincent, who was suffering from long lasting mental problems.

<i>Flowering Orchards</i> series of paintings executed by Vincent van Gogh in Arles

Flowering Orchards is a series of paintings which Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh executed in Arles, in southern France in the spring of 1888. Van Gogh arrived in Arles in February 1888 in a snowstorm; within two weeks the weather changed and the fruit trees were in blossom. Appreciating the symbolism of rebirth, Van Gogh worked with optimism and zeal on about fourteen paintings of flowering trees in the early spring. He also made paintings of flowering trees in Saint-Rémy the following year, in 1889.

<i>The Wheat Field</i> painting series by Vincent van Gogh

The Wheat Field is a series of oil paintings executed by Vincent van Gogh in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. All of them depict the view Van Gogh had from the window of his bedroom on the top floor of the asylum: a field enclosed by stone walls just beneath his window and excluded from normal life by the rear wall of the asylum grounds; beyond this enclosure farm land, accompanied by olive groves and vineyards, ran up to the hills at the foot of the mountain range called Les Alpilles.

<i>Wheat Field with Cypresses</i> painting series by Vincent van Gogh

A Wheatfield with Cypresses is any of three similar 1889 oil paintings by Vincent van Gogh, as part of his wheat field series. All were exhibited at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole mental asylum at Saint-Rémy near Arles, France, where Van Gogh was voluntarily a patient from May 1889 to May 1890. The works were inspired by the view from the window at the asylum towards the Alpilles mountains.

<i>A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-Paul</i> painting by Vincent van Gogh

A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-Paul was painted by Vincent van Gogh in December 1889. It depicts fields of young wheat with a background of lilac mountains and yellowish sky.

<i>Wheat Fields</i> (Van Gogh series) Vincent Van Gogh series of paintings

The Wheat Fields is a series of dozens of paintings by Vincent van Gogh, borne out of his religious studies and sermons, connection to nature, appreciation of manual laborers and desire to provide a means of offering comfort to others. The wheat field works demonstrate his progression as an artist from the drab Wheat Sheaves made in 1885 in the Netherlands to the colorful, dramatic paintings from Arles, Saint-Rémy and Auvers-sur-Oise of rural France.

<i>Butterflies</i> (Van Gogh series) painting series by Vincent van Gogh

Butterflies is a series paintings made by Vincent van Gogh in 1889 and 1890. Van Gogh made at least four paintings of butterflies and one of a moth. The metamorphosis of the caterpillar into a butterfly was symbolic to Van Gogh of men and women's capability for transformation.

<i>Almond Blossoms</i> painting series by Vincent van Gogh

Almond Blossoms is from a group of several paintings made in 1888 and 1890 by Vincent van Gogh in Arles and Saint-Rémy, southern France of blossoming almond trees. Flowering trees were special to van Gogh. They represented awakening and hope. He enjoyed them aesthetically and found joy in painting flowering trees. The works reflect the influence of Impressionism, Divisionism, and Japanese woodcuts. Almond Blossom was made to celebrate the birth of his nephew and namesake, son of his brother Theo and sister-in-law Jo.

<i>Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy</i> (Van Gogh series) painting series by Vincent van Gogh

Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy is a collection of paintings that Vincent van Gogh made when he was a self-admitted patient at the Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, since renamed the Clinique Van Gogh, from May 1889 until May 1890. During much of his stay there he was confined to the grounds of the asylum, and he made paintings of the garden, the enclosed wheat field that he could see outside his room and a few portraits of individuals at the asylum. During his stay at Saint-Paul asylum, Van Gogh experienced periods of illness when he could not paint. When he was able to resume, painting provided solace and meaning for him. Nature seemed especially meaningful to him, trees, the landscape, even caterpillars as representative of the opportunity for transformation and budding flowers symbolizing the cycle of life. One of the more recognizable works of this period is The Irises. Works of the interior of the hospital convey the isolation and sadness that he felt. From the window of his cell he saw an enclosed wheat field, the subject of many paintings made from his room. He was able to make but a few portraits while at Saint-Paul.

Van Goghs family in his art Appearances of Vincent van Goghs family in his art

Van Gogh's family in his art is a group of works that Vincent van Gogh made for or about Van Gogh family members. In 1881, Vincent drew a portrait of his grandfather, also named Vincent van Gogh, and his sister Wil. While living in Nuenen, Vincent memorialized his father in Still Life with Bible following his death in 1885. There he also made many paintings and drawings in 1884 and 1885 of his parent's vicarage, its garden and the church. At the height of his career in Arles he made Portrait of the Artist's Mother, Memory of the Garden at Etten of his mother and sister and Novel Reader, which is thought to be of his sister, Wil.

<i>Old Vineyard with Peasant Woman</i> drawing by Vincent van Gogh

Old Vineyard with Peasant Woman is a drawing by Vincent van Gogh that he made in May 1890 when he lived in Auvers-sur-Oise, France.

<i>Tree Roots</i> painting by Vincent van Gogh

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

<i>View of the Asylum and Chapel of Saint-Rémy</i> painting by Vincent van Gogh

View of the Asylum and Chapel of Saint-Rémy is an oil on canvas painting by Vincent van Gogh that he painted in autumn 1889 at Saint-Rémy, France, where he had voluntarily incarcerated himself in a lunatic asylum.

<i>Houses at Auvers</i> painting by Vincent van Gogh

Houses at Auvers is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh, painted towards the end of May or beginning of June 1890, shortly after he had moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, a small town northwest of Paris, France.

References

  1. 1 2 "Trees and Undergrowth, 1887". Permanent Collection. Van Gogh Museum. 2005–2011. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
  2. ↑ Lübbren, N (2001). Rural artists' colonies in Europe, 1870-1910. Manchester: Manchester University Press. pp. 85, 90. ISBN   0-7190-5866-X.
  3. 1 2 "Undergrowth, 1889". Permanent Collection. Van Gogh Museum. 2005–2011. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
  4. ↑ "Undergrowth, 1889". Permanent Collection. Van Gogh Museum. 2005–2011. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
  5. ↑ "Corner in the Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital". Van Gogh Gallery. 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
  6. ↑ "Theo van Gogh. Letter to Vincent van Gogh. Written 8 December 1889 in Saint-Rémy". WebExhibits.org. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
  7. ↑ Harrison, R, ed. (2011). "Letter from Theo van Gogh to Vincent van Gogh, Saint-Rémy, 8 December 1889". Van Gogh Letters. WebExhibits. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
  8. ↑ "Art Museum Lets Patrons Watch Painting's Restoration". WLMT Television. Cincinnati: Hearst Publications. 2011-05-23. Retrieved 2011-05-24.
  9. ↑ http://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/Painting/656/Undergrowth-with-Two-Figures.html
  10. ↑ Harrison, R, ed. (2011). "Vincent van Gogh. Letter to Theo van Gogh. Written 21 January 1877 in Dordrecht". Van Gogh Letters. WebExhibits. Retrieved 2011-05-20' Van Gogh wrote 31 letters describing ivy and 43 articles about Dickens
  11. ↑ Dickens, C; Lang, A (1907). The Works of Charles Dickens. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's. pp. 87–88.
  12. ↑ Van Gogh, V & Leeuw, R (1997) [1996]. van Crimpen, H & Berends-Albert, M, eds. The Letters of Vincent van Gogh. London and other locations: Penguin Books. p. 385.
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