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Van Gogh Information and images on this page courtesy of David Brooks, a Van Gogh specialist and curator of www.vangoghgallery.com.
Vincent van Gogh had a good heart, but often found himself shunned and isolated during his two years in Ales and St. Rémy. At times, the ancient olive trees of Provence were his only friends. Following are extracts from letters he wrotye to his brother, Theo, during his time there. "Oh, my dear Theo, if you saw the olives just now. . . . The leaves, old silver and silver turning to green against the blue. And the orange-coloured ploughed earth. It is something quite different from your idea of it in the North, the tender beauty, the distinction! "It is like the pollard willows of our Dutch meadows or the oak bushes of our dunes, that is to say the rustle of an olive grove has something very secret in it, and immensely old. It is too beautiful for us to dare to paint it or be able to imagine it." (Letter 587) "But sometimes one notices that the sun is rather powerful, as the grain gets yellow very soon, but the fields with us are cultivated more intensely and more regularly than here, where in many places the rocky soil is not fit for everything. Here there are very beautiful fields with olive trees, which are silvery grey in leaf, like pollard willows." (Letter 598) "On the other hand the olive trees are very characteristic, and I am struggling to catch them. They are old silver, sometimes with more blue in them, sometimes greenish, bronzed, fading white above a soil which is yellow, pink, violet-tined or orange, to dull red ocher. Very difficult though, very difficult. But that suits me and induces me to work wholly in gold or silver." (Letter 608) "Now, I on my part sought contrasting effects in
the foliage, changing with the hues of the sky. At times
the whole is a pure all-pervading blue, namely when the
tree bears its pale flowers, and big blue flies, emerald
rose beetles and cicadas in great numbers are hovering
around it. Then, as the bronzed leaves are getting riper
in tone, the sky is brilliant and radiant with green and
orange, or, more often even, in autumn, when the leaves
acquire something of the violet tinges of the ripe fig,
the violet effect will manifest itself vividly through
the contrasts, with the large sun taking on a white tint
within a halo of clear and pale citron yellow. At times,
after a shower, I have also seen the whole sky coloured
pink and bright orange, which gave an exquisite value and
colouring to the silvery gray-green. And in the midst of
that there were women, likewise pink, gathering
fruits." (Letter 614a) |
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Vincent van
Gogh, one of the most famous artists in history, loved
nature and had a special fondness for olive trees. During
his two years in the south of France Van Gogh was
extremely lonely and suffered a series of mental
breakdowns. However, throughout this difficult time he
found comfort in the beauty of nature and enjoyed his
explorations of the olive groves of Provence. Van Gogh
painted a number of works depicting olive groves -- each
one capturing the beauty of the trees and the famous
light that attracted many artists to the south of France.
