The Van Gogh Museum will open this Friday an exhibition focused on the series of fifteen paintings of olive groves that the Dutch artist made between June and December 1889 in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, in the south of France, reflecting the painter’s fascination with the shapes and lights of the leaves of these trees.
At first glance, they may all seem the same, but in reality, each piece tells its own story. They are painted in different seasons and times of the day, and from various perspectives, in a search for the typical characteristics of the olive tree of Provence. “The olive trees are very characteristic, and I am struggling to capture that”he wrote to his brother Theo in September 1889.
On display are 15 paintings and 10 drawings that reflect the painter’s “intense personal and spiritual attachment” to olive trees, all bearing the unmistakable hallmark of Van Gogh: the painter himself believed them to be among the best works of his time in the south of France, which witnessed one of his toughest stages, when he suffered severe depression and had to deal with psychosis.
In the midst of so much suffering, olive groves were a symbol of resistance and conveyed reassuring feelings of eternity and unity to the Dutch artist, admitted to a psychiatric hospital surrounded by olive trees. “During that difficult season for him, he found comfort and support in nature and in the painting,” said the curator of the exhibition, Nienke Bakker.
He started drawing the olive groves the moment he was allowed out of the asylum, and once he mastered the typical features of the trees, he began to experiment with his style to express a deeper meaning than that of a simple tree: olive trees had a very personal and comforting symbolism for Van Gogh.
Whatever the object was, the artist liked to work with his “muse” right in front of him, so he painted his first olive groves in the open air, reflecting impressions of what he saw on the spot, using loose brushstrokes and many different colors, and once satisfied with a composition, he would sometimes paint a new version, but from indoors and with his outdoor work as a reference.
But the works from the studio are more stylized and far from reality: he limited the number of colors he used and he raised the forms in undulating lines, his brushstrokes were more rhythmic and systematic in length and direction. Many times, he finished works started outdoors in the studio.
Van Gogh was captivated by the colors of these trees, the effect of the sun on their leaves, and even their stylized trunks, which served as the perfect inspiration for him to play with shapes, colors and techniques to represent the olive tree. “It is silvery, sometimes more blue, sometimes green, bronze, whitening on a yellow, pink, violet or orange background to a dull ocher red”, described the artist.
As well as making clear the Post-Impressionist’s ambition in painting olive groves, these works also discuss Van Gogh’s habit of producing series of paintings with the same subject matter: “How he varied his colors, composition, brushstrokes, how he often worked not only outdoors, but also inside his studio, and how he made several versions of the same olive grove”, explains the art gallery, which will open this spring exhibition this Friday.
The director of the museum, Emily Gordenker, I consider that “These wonderful paintings show Van Gogh’s love of nature and his belief in solace through art,” and stressed that this exhibition is “a rare opportunity” because it shows all 15 of Van Gogh’s olive groves in one place.
After the death of Van Gogh (1853-1890), these paintings remained in the hands of Theo, but today they are owned by more than a dozen European and American collections, and it is not often to see them all together, as will happen until June 12 at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The art gallery also offers an extensive catalog with research on these paintings. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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