1889, Vincent van Gogh, Olive grove -- Kroller-Muller Museum (Otterlo)
From the museum label: If there is one painting that intensely depicts the sweltering heat, the arid land, the crooked, twisting trunks and branches and the atmosphere of an olive grove in the Provence, then it is this work by Vincent van Gogh. 'There are very beautiful fields of olive trees here, which are grey and silvery in leaf like pollard willows. Then I never tire of the blue sky', he writes to his mother.
In this nature study, Van Gogh uses longer brushstrokes for the tree trunks, branches and contours. For the majority of the rest of the painting - the ground, the leaves of the olive trees and the sky - he works with short, curved brushstrokes. This makes the air appear to vibrate and the heat in the olive grove is almost palpable. Without painting the sun itself, here he depicts the energy of the sun and the power of nature.
Link to other van Gogh paintings
1889, Vincent van Gogh, Olive grove -- Kroller-Muller Museum (Otterlo)
From the museum label: If there is one painting that intensely depicts the sweltering heat, the arid land, the crooked, twisting trunks and branches and the atmosphere of an olive grove in the Provence, then it is this work by Vincent van Gogh. 'There are very beautiful fields of olive trees here, which are grey and silvery in leaf like pollard willows. Then I never tire of the blue sky', he writes to his mother.
In this nature study, Van Gogh uses longer brushstrokes for the tree trunks, branches and contours. For the majority of the rest of the painting - the ground, the leaves of the olive trees and the sky - he works with short, curved brushstrokes. This makes the air appear to vibrate and the heat in the olive grove is almost palpable. Without painting the sun itself, here he depicts the energy of the sun and the power of nature.
Link to other van Gogh paintings