Editing Vincent van Gogh (section)

==Style and works==

===Artistic development===
[[File:Vincent van Gogh - Starry Night - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[Starry Night Over the Rhône]]'', 1888. [[Musée d'Orsay]], Paris|alt= A view of a dark starry night with bright stars shining over the River Rhone. Across the river distant buildings with bright lights shining are reflected into the dark waters of the Rhone.]]

Van Gogh drew and painted with [[watercolour painting|watercolours]] while at school, but only a few examples survive and the authorship of some has been challenged.{{sfnp|Van Heugten|1996|loc= 246–251}} When he took up art as an adult, he began at an elementary level. In early 1882, his uncle, Cornelis Marinus, owner of a well-known gallery of contemporary art in Amsterdam, asked for drawings of The Hague. Van Gogh's work did not live up to expectations. Marinus offered a second commission, specifying the subject matter in detail, but was again disappointed with the result. Van Gogh persevered; he experimented with lighting in his studio using variable shutters and different drawing materials. For more than a year he worked on single figures&nbsp;– highly elaborate studies in black and white,{{efn|group=note|Artists working in black and white, e.g. for illustrated papers like ''[[The Graphic]]'' or ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'' were among van Gogh's favourites.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1974}}}} which at the time gained him only criticism. Later, they were recognised as early masterpieces.{{sfnp|Dorn|Keyes|2000}}

In August 1882, Theo gave Vincent money to buy materials for working ''[[en plein air]]''. Vincent wrote that he could now "go on painting with new vigour".{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let253/letter.html Letter 253]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. The Hague, Saturday, 5 August 1882.}} From early 1883, he worked on multi-figure compositions. He had some of them photographed, but when his brother remarked that they lacked liveliness and freshness, he destroyed them and turned to oil painting. Van Gogh turned to well-known [[Hague School]] artists like [[Johan Hendrik Weissenbruch|Weissenbruch]] and [[Bernard Blommers|Blommers]], and he received technical advice from them as well as from painters like [[Théophile de Bock|De Bock]] and [[Herman Johannes van der Weele|van der Weele]], both of the Hague School's second generation.{{sfnp|Dorn|Schröder|Sillevis|1996}} He moved to Nuenen after a short period in Drenthe and began work on several large paintings but destroyed most of them. ''The Potato Eaters'' and its companion pieces are the only ones to have survived.{{sfnp|Dorn|Schröder|Sillevis|1996}} Following a visit to the [[Rijksmuseum]] Van Gogh wrote of his admiration for the quick, economical brushwork of the [[Dutch Masters]], especially [[Rembrandt]] and [[Frans Hals]].{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let535/letter.html Letter 535]|ps= To Theo van Gogh. Nuenen, on or about Tuesday, 13 October 1885.}}{{efn|group=note|{{harvp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let535/letter.html Letter 535 ]|ps= To Theo van Gogh. Nuenen, on or about Tuesday, 13 October 1885:{{paragraph break}}What particularly struck me when I saw the old Dutch paintings again is that they were usually painted quickly. That these great masters like Hals, Rembrandt, [[Jacob van Ruisdael|Ruisdael]]&nbsp;– so many others&nbsp;– as far as possible just put it straight down&nbsp;– and didn't come back to it so very much. And&nbsp;– this, too, please&nbsp;– that if it worked, they left it alone. Above all I admired hands by Rembrandt and Hals&nbsp;– hands that lived, but were not finished in the sense that people want to enforce nowadays&nbsp;... In the winter I'm going to explore various things regarding manner that I noticed in the old paintings. I saw a great deal that I needed. But this above all things&nbsp;– what they call&nbsp;– dashing off&nbsp;– you see that's what the old Dutch painters did famously. That&nbsp;– dashing off&nbsp;– with a few brushstrokes, they won't hear of it now &nbsp;– but how true the results are.{{paragraph break}}}}}} He was aware many of his faults were due to lack of experience and technical expertise,{{sfnp|Dorn|Schröder|Sillevis|1996}} so in November 1885 he travelled to Antwerp and later Paris to learn and develop his skills.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 708}}

[[File:Van_Gogh_The_Olive_Trees..jpg|thumb|''[[Olive Trees (Van Gogh series)|Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background]]'', 1889. [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York|alt=A squarish painting of green winding olive trees; with rolling blue hills in the background and white clouds in the blue sky above.]]

Theo criticised ''The Potato Eaters'' for its dark palette, which he thought unsuitable for a modern style.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=18}} During Van Gogh's stay in Paris between 1886 and 1887, he tried to master a new, lighter palette. His ''[[Portrait of Père Tanguy]]'' (1887) shows his success with the brighter palette and is evidence of an evolving personal style.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=18–19}} [[Charles Blanc]]'s treatise on colour interested him greatly and led him to work with complementary colours. Van Gogh came to believe that the effect of colour went beyond the descriptive; he said that "colour expresses something in itself".{{sfnp|Sund|1988|loc=666}}{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let537/letter.html Letter 537]|ps= . Vincent to Theo, Nuenen, on or about Wednesday, 28 October 1885.}} According to Hughes, Van Gogh perceived colour as having a "psychological and moral weight", as exemplified in the garish reds and greens of ''[[The Night Café]]'', a work he wanted to "express the terrible passions of humanity".{{sfnp|Hughes|2002|loc= 7}} Yellow meant the most to him, because it symbolised emotional truth. He used yellow as a symbol for sunlight, life, and God.{{sfnp|Hughes|2002|loc= 11}}

Van Gogh strove to be a painter of rural life and nature;{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 232}} during his first summer in Arles he used his new palette to paint landscapes and traditional rural life.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=20}} His belief that a power existed behind the natural led him to try to capture a sense of that power, or the essence of nature in his art, sometimes through the use of symbols.{{sfnp|Hughes|2002|loc= 8–9}} His renditions of the sower, at first copied from [[Jean-François Millet]], reflect the influence of [[Thomas Carlyle]] and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]'s thoughts on the heroism of physical labour,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wamberg |first=Jacob |title=Totalitarian Art and Modernity |publisher=Aarhus University Press |year=2010 |editor-last=Rasmussen |editor-first=Mikkel Bolt |pages=36–104 |chapter=Wounded Working Heroes: Seeing Millet and van Gogh through the Cleft Lens of Totalitarianism |editor-last2=Wamberg |editor-first2=Jacob}}</ref> as well as Van Gogh's religious beliefs: the sower as Christ sowing life beneath the hot sun.{{sfnp|Sund|1988|loc=668}} These were themes and motifs he returned to often to rework and develop.{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 236}} His paintings of flowers are filled with symbolism, but rather than use traditional Christian [[iconography]] he made up his own, where life is lived under the sun and work is an allegory of life.{{sfnp|Hughes|2002|loc= 12}} In Arles, having gained confidence after painting spring blossoms and learning to capture bright sunlight, he was ready to paint ''The Sower''.{{sfnp|Sund|1988|loc=666}}

[[File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 098.jpg|thumb|''[[Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles)|Memory of the Garden at Etten]]'', 1888. [[Hermitage Museum]], St Petersburg|alt=A squarish painting of a closeup of two women with one holding an umbrella while the other woman holds flowers. Behind them is a young woman who is picking flowers in a large bed of wildflowers. They appear to be walking through a garden on a winding path at the edge of a river.]]
Van Gogh stayed within what he called the "guise of reality"{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 223}} and was critical of overly stylised works.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=21}} He wrote afterwards that the abstraction of ''Starry Night'' had gone too far and that reality had "receded too far in the background".{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=21}} Hughes describes it as a moment of extreme visionary ecstasy: the stars are in a great whirl, reminiscent of [[Hokusai]]'s ''[[The Great Wave off Kanagawa|Great Wave]]'', the movement in the heaven above is reflected by the movement of the cypress on the earth below, and the painter's vision is "translated into a thick, emphatic plasma of paint".{{sfnp|Hughes|2002|loc= 8}}

Between 1885 and his death in 1890, Van Gogh appears to have been building an ''oeuvre'',{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 224}} a collection that reflected his personal vision and could be commercially successful. He was influenced by Blanc's definition of style, that a true painting required optimal use of colour, perspective and brushstrokes. Van Gogh applied the word "purposeful" to paintings he thought he had mastered, as opposed to those he thought of as studies.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=16–17}} He painted many series of studies;{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 223}} most of which were still lifes, many executed as colour experiments or as gifts to friends.{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 242}} The work in Arles contributed considerably to his ''oeuvre'': those he thought the most important from that time were ''The Sower'', ''Night Cafe'', ''[[Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles)|Memory of the Garden in Etten]]'' and ''Starry Night''. With their broad brushstrokes, inventive perspectives, colours, contours and designs, these paintings represent the style he sought.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=21}}

===Major series===
{{Main|List of works by Vincent van Gogh}}
[[File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 059.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[L'Arlésienne (painting)|L'Arlésienne: Madame Ginoux with Books]]'', November 1888. [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York|alt=A well-dressed woman sits facing to her right (the viewer's left). She has two books on her lap, and is dressed in dark clothes vividly contrasted against a yellow background.]]

Van Gogh's stylistic developments are usually linked to the periods he spent living in different places across Europe. He was inclined to immerse himself in local cultures and lighting conditions, although he maintained a highly individual visual outlook throughout. His evolution as an artist was slow and he was aware of his painterly limitations. Van Gogh moved home often, perhaps to expose himself to new visual stimuli, and through exposure develop his technical skill.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc=138}} Art historian Melissa McQuillan believes the moves also reflect later stylistic changes and that Van Gogh used the moves to avoid conflict, and as a coping mechanism for when the idealistic artist was faced with the realities of his then current situation.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 193}}

====Portraits====
{{See also|Portraits by Vincent van Gogh|Paintings of Children (Van Gogh series)|Van Gogh's family in his art}}

Van Gogh said portraiture was his greatest interest. "What I'm most passionate about, much much more than all the rest in my profession", he wrote in 1890, "is the portrait, the modern portrait."<ref>{{Cite web |title=879 (883, W22): To Willemien van Gogh. Auvers-sur-Oise, Thursday, 5 June 1890. - Vincent van Gogh Letters |url=https://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let879/letter.html#translation |access-date=20 October 2022 |website=www.vangoghletters.org}}</ref> It is "the only thing in painting that moves me deeply and that gives me a sense of the infinite."{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 242}}{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let652/letter.html Letter 652]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Tuesday, 31 July 1888.}} He wrote to his sister that he wished to paint portraits that would endure, and that he would use colour to capture their emotions and character rather than aiming for photographic realism.{{refn|{{harvp|Channing|Bradley|2007|loc=67}}; {{harvp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let879/letter.html Letter 879]|ps= . Vincent to Willemien van Gogh. Auvers-sur-Oise, Thursday, 5 June 1890.}}}} Those closest to Van Gogh are mostly absent from his portraits; he rarely painted Theo, van Rappard or Bernard. The portraits of his mother were from photographs.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 198}}

Van Gogh painted Arles' postmaster Joseph Roulin and his family repeatedly. In five versions of ''La Berceuse'' (''The Lullaby''), Van Gogh painted Augustine Roulin quietly holding a rope that rocks the unseen cradle of her infant daughter. Van Gogh had planned for it to be the central image of a triptych, flanked by paintings of sunflowers.<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 2004 |title=Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gogh/hd_gogh.htm |access-date=20 October 2022 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref>

<gallery widths="135px" heights="165px" class="center">
File:Van Gogh - Bildnis der Mutter des Künstlers.jpeg|alt=A closeup portrait of an elderly well-dressed woman sits facing to her left (the viewer's right). She has a pleasant smile and she is dressed in a dark top and she is wearing a hat, in front of a vivid green background.|''Portrait of Artist's Mother'', October 1888, [[Norton Simon Museum of Art]], Pasadena, California
File:Vincent van Gogh - Eugène Boch - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=A closeup portrait of an intense young man well-dressed with suit and tie, facing to his right (the viewer's left), he has a moustache and goatee and he is standing in front of a starry sky in the background.|''[[Eugène Boch]] (The Poet Against a Starry Sky)'', 1888, [[Musée d'Orsay]], Paris
File:Vincent van Gogh - Portret van de postbode Joseph Roulin.jpg|alt=A portrait of a middle aged man with a moustache and beard seated on a chair facing to his left (the viewer's right). He has a thoughtful look on his face and his hands are free while his left arm rests on a table, he is wearing a dark blue uniform and cap, in front of a pale blue background.|''Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin'' (1841–1903), early August 1888, [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]]
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 084.jpg|alt=An elderly well-dressed woman sits facing to her right (the viewer's left). She has her hands clasped together on her lap, and she is dressed in a dark top and green dress in front of a vivid flower wallpaper background.|''La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin)'', 1889, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
</gallery>
{{clear}}

====Self-portraits====
{{main|Portraits of Vincent van Gogh#Self-portraits}}
[[File:Self-Portrait (Van Gogh September 1889).jpg|alt= A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the left, with an extreme intense, intent look, and a red beard.|thumb|180x180px|''Self-Portrait'', September 1889. [[Musée d'Orsay]]]]

Van Gogh created more than 43 self-portraits between 1885 and 1889.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 15}}{{efn|group=note|[[Rembrandt]] is one of the few major painters to exceed this volume of self-portraits, producing over 50, but he did so over a forty-year period.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 15}}}} They were usually completed in series, such as those painted in Paris in mid-1887, and continued until shortly before his death.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc=263–269, 653}} Generally the portraits were studies, created during periods when he was reluctant to mix with others or when he lacked models and painted himself.{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 242}}{{sfnp|Sund|2002|loc= 261}}

Van Gogh's self-portraits reflect a high degree of self-scrutiny.{{sfnp|Hughes|2002|loc= 10}} Often they were intended to mark important periods in his life; for example, the mid-1887 Paris series were painted at the point where he became aware of [[Claude Monet]], [[Paul Cézanne]] and Signac.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 265–269}} In ''Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat'', heavy strains of paint spread outwards across the canvas. It is one of his most renowned self-portraits of that period, "with its highly organised rhythmic brushstrokes, and the novel halo derived from the Neo-impressionist repertoire was what Van Gogh himself called a 'purposeful' canvas".{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=83}}

They contain a wide array of [[Physiognomy|physiognomical]] representations.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 15}} Van Gogh's mental and physical condition is usually apparent; he may appear unkempt, unshaven or with a neglected beard, with deeply sunken eyes, a weak jaw, or having lost teeth. Some show him with full lips, a long face or prominent skull, or sharpened, alert features. His hair is sometimes depicted in a vibrant reddish hue and at other times ash coloured.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 15}}

Van Gogh's self-portraits vary stylistically. In those painted after December 1888, the strong contrast of vivid colours highlight the haggard pallor of his skin.{{sfnp|Sund|2002|loc= 261}} Some depict the artist with a beard, others without. He can be seen with bandages in portraits executed just after he mutilated his ear. In only a few does he depict himself as a painter.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 15}} Those painted in Saint-Rémy show the head from the right, the side opposite his damaged ear, as he painted himself reflected in his mirror.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 535–537}}{{sfnp|Cohen|2003|loc=305–306}}

<gallery widths="165" heights="165" class="center">
File:Vincent van Gogh - Self-portrait with grey felt hat - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the left, with a relaxed but intent look, a red beard and wearing a grey hat.|''Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat'', Winter 1887–88. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
File:Van Gogh Self-Portrait with Straw Hat 1887-Metropolitan.jpg|alt=A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the left, with a relaxed look, a red beard and wearing a straw hat.|''[[Self-portraits by Vincent van Gogh|Self-Portrait with Straw Hat]]'', Paris, Winter 1887–88. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
File:Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1889, NGA 106382.jpg|alt=A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the left (good ear) holding a palette with brushes.  He is wearing a blue cloak and has yellow hair and beard. The background is a deep violet.|''Self-Portrait'', 1889. [[National Gallery of Art]], Washington, D.C. His Saint-Rémy self-portraits show the unmutilated ear, as reflected in the mirror.
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 102.jpg|alt=A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the left (good ear), with no beard.|''[[Self-Portrait Without Beard]]'', (c. September 1889) may have been Van Gogh's last self-portrait, which he gave to his mother on her birthday.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 131}}{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let806/letter.html#n-16 Letter 806, note 16]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Saturday, 28 September 1889.}}
</gallery>

====Flowers====
{{See also|Sunflowers (Van Gogh series)|Almond Blossoms}}
[[File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 127.jpg|thumb|upright|''Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers'', August 1888. [[National Gallery]], London|alt=A ceramic vase with sunflowers on a yellow surface against a bright yellow background.]]

Van Gogh painted several landscapes with flowers, including roses, [[lilac]]s, [[iris (plant)|irises]], and [[sunflower]]s. Some reflect his interests in the language of colour, and also in Japanese [[ukiyo-e]].{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 80–81, 184–187}} There are two series of dying sunflowers. The first was painted in Paris in 1887 and shows flowers lying on the ground. The second set was completed a year later in Arles and is of bouquets in a vase positioned in early morning light.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 413}} Both are built from [[impasto|thickly layered paintwork]], which, according to the London National Gallery, evokes the "texture of the seed-heads".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/vincent-van-gogh-sunflowers|title=Vincent van Gogh; Sunflowers; NG3863|publisher=National Gallery, London|access-date=1 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160812154012/http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/vincent-van-gogh-sunflowers|archive-date=12 August 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

In these series, Van Gogh was not preoccupied by his usual interest in filling his paintings with subjectivity and emotion; rather, the two series are intended to display his technical skill and working methods to Gauguin,{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 411}} who was about to visit. The 1888 paintings were created during a rare period of optimism for the artist. Vincent wrote to Theo in August 1888:
{{quote|I'm painting with the gusto of a Marseillais eating bouillabaisse, which won't surprise you when it's a question of painting large sunflowers&nbsp;... If I carry out this plan there'll be a dozen or so panels. The whole thing will therefore be a symphony in blue and yellow. I work on it all these mornings, from sunrise. Because the flowers wilt quickly and it's a matter of doing the whole thing in one go.{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let666/letter.html Letter 666]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Tuesday, 21 or Wednesday, 22 August 1888.}}}}

The sunflowers were painted to decorate the walls in anticipation of Gauguin's visit, and Van Gogh placed individual works around the ''[[Décoration for the Yellow House|Yellow House's guest room]]'' in Arles. Gauguin was deeply impressed and later acquired two of the Paris versions.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 411}} After Gauguin's departure, Van Gogh imagined the two major versions of the sunflowers as wings of the ''Berceuse Triptych'', and included them in his [[Vincent van Gogh's display at Les XX, 1890|''Les XX'' in Brussels exhibit]]. Today the major pieces of the series are among his best known, celebrated for the sickly connotations of the colour yellow and its tie-in with the Yellow House, the expressionism of the brush strokes, and their contrast against often dark backgrounds.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 417}}

<gallery widths="165" heights="165" class="center">
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 128.jpg|alt=A ceramic vase with sunflowers on a yellow surface against a pale blue background.|''[[Sunflowers (painting)|Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers]]'', August 1888. [[Neue Pinakothek]], Munich
File:Irises-Vincent van Gogh.jpg|alt=Irises growing in a garden. There is bare soil visible and orange flowers in the background.|''[[Irises (painting)|Irises]]'', May 1889. [[J. Paul Getty Museum]], Los Angeles
File:Vincent van Gogh - Almond blossom - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=Pale pink blossoms on the branches of a tree against a pale blue sky.|''[[Almond Blossoms|Almond Blossom]]'', February 1890. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
File:Vincent van Gogh - Irises - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=Iris flowers and some green leaves in a yellow vase.|''Still Life: [[Vase with Irises Against a Yellow Background]]'', May 1890, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 819–820}}
<!-- File:Van Gogh - Vase of Roses.jpg|alt=Pale pink roses in a green vase, against a pale green background.|''Still Life: [[Still Life: Vase with Pink Roses|Vase with Pink Roses]]'', May 1890, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 819–820}} -->
</gallery>
{{clear}}

====Cypresses and olives====
{{See also|Olive Trees (Van Gogh series)}}
[[File:Vincent van Gogh - Road with Cypress and Star - c. 12-15 May 1890.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Road with Cypress and Star]]'', May 1890, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo|alt= A painting of a large cypress tree, on the side of a road, with two people walking, a wagon and horse behind them, and a green house in the background, under an intense starry sky.]]

Fifteen canvases depict [[Cupressus sempervirens|cypresses]], a tree he became fascinated with in Arles.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 101, 189–191}} He brought life to the trees, which were traditionally seen as emblematic of death.{{sfnp|Hughes|2002|loc= 8–9}} The series of cypresses he began in Arles featured the trees in the distance, as windbreaks in fields; when he was at Saint-Rémy he brought them to the foreground.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 110}} Vincent wrote to Theo in May 1889: "Cypresses still preoccupy me, I should like to do something with them like my canvases of sunflowers"; he went on to say, "They are beautiful in line and proportion like an Egyptian obelisk."{{sfnp|Rewald|1978|loc= 311}}

In mid-1889, and at his sister Wil's request, Van Gogh painted several smaller versions of ''[[Wheat Field with Cypresses]]''.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 132–133}} The works are characterised by swirls and densely painted impasto, and include ''The Starry Night'', in which cypresses dominate the foreground.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 101, 189–191}} In addition to this, other notable works on cypresses include ''Cypresses'' (1889), ''Cypresses with Two Figures'' (1889–90), and ''[[Road with Cypress and Star]]'' (1890).{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 101}}

During the last six or seven months of the year 1889, he had also created at least fifteen paintings of olive trees, a subject which he considered as demanding and compelling.<ref name="NGA">{{cite web |url=http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg84/gg84-46627.html |title=The Olive Garden, 1889 |year=2011 |work=Collection |publisher=National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |access-date=25 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510143650/http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg84/gg84-46627.html |archive-date=10 May 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref> Among these works are ''[[Olive Trees (Van Gogh series)|Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background]]'' (1889), about which in a letter to his brother Van Gogh wrote, "At last I have a landscape with olives".{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 101}} While in Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh spent time outside the asylum, where he painted trees in the olive groves. In these works, natural life is rendered as gnarled and arthritic as if a personification of the natural world, which are, according to Hughes, filled with "a continuous field of energy of which nature is a manifestation".{{sfnp|Hughes|2002|loc= 8–9}}

<gallery widths="165" heights="165" class="center">
File:Van Gogh Starry Night Drawing.jpg|alt=A drawing of a landscape in which the starry night sky takes up two-thirds of the picture. In the left foreground a cypress tree extends from the bottom to the top of the picture. To the left, village houses and a church with a tall steeple are clustered at the foot of a mountain range. In the upper right is a crescent moon surrounded by a halo of light. There are many bright stars large and small, each surrounded by swirling halos. Across the centre of the sky the Milky Way is represented as a double swirling vortex|''Cypresses in Starry Night'', a [[reed pen]] drawing executed by Van Gogh after the painting in 1889
File:Van Gogh - Zypressen mit zwei weiblichen Figuren.jpeg|alt=A painting of a large group of cypress trees, beside which two young women are walking, a large house in the background, under a cloudy blue sky.|''Cypresses and Two Women'', February 1890. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands
File:Vincent van Gogh - Wheat Field with Cypresses - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=A painting of two large cypress trees under a bright afternoon sky, next to a wheat field in a landscape of hills, bushes, flowers and trees|''[[Wheat Field with Cypresses]]'', September 1889. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
File:Vincent Van Gogh 0016.jpg|alt=A painting of two large cypress trees, under a late afternoon sky, with a crescent moon|''Cypresses'', 1889. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
</gallery>

====Orchards====
{{See also|Flowering Orchards}}

The ''[[Flowering Orchards]]'' (also the ''Orchards in Blossom'') are among the first groups of work completed after Van Gogh's arrival in Arles in February 1888. The 14 paintings are optimistic, joyous and visually expressive of the burgeoning spring. They are delicately sensitive and unpopulated. He painted swiftly, and although he brought to this series a version of Impressionism, a strong sense of personal style began to emerge during this period. The transience of the blossoming trees, and the passing of the season, seemed to align with his sense of impermanence and belief in a new beginning in Arles. During the blossoming of the trees that spring, he found "a world of motifs that could not have been more Japanese".{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 331–333}} Vincent wrote to Theo on 21 April 1888 that he had 10 orchards and "one big [painting] of a cherry tree, which I've spoiled".{{sfnp|Pickvance|1984|loc=45–53}}

During this period Van Gogh mastered the use of light by subjugating shadows and painting the trees as if they are the source of light – almost in a sacred manner.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 331–333}} Early the following year he painted another smaller group of orchards, including ''[[View of Arles, Flowering Orchards]]''.{{sfnp|Hulsker|1980|loc=385}} Van Gogh was enthralled by the landscape and vegetation of the south of France, and often visited the farm gardens near Arles. In the vivid light of the [[Mediterranean climate]] his palette significantly brightened.{{sfnp|Fell |1997|loc= 32}}

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File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 014.jpg|alt=A watercolour of two pink peach trees in a blossoming orchard of trees near a wooden fence under a bright blue sky|''Pink Peach Tree in Blossom (Reminiscence of Mauve)'', watercolour, March 1888. Kröller-Müller Museum
File:Vincent van Gogh - De roze boomgaard - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=A painting of a blossoming orchard of trees under a bright blue sky.|''The Pink Orchard'' also ''Orchard with Blossoming Apricot Trees'', March 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
File:Van Gogh - Blühender Obstgarten, von Zypressen umgeben.jpeg|alt=A painting of a blossoming orchard of many trees near wooden fences bordered by large cypress trees under a bright blue sky.|''Orchard in Blossom, Bordered by Cypresses'', April 1888. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands
File:Vincent Van Gogh 0018.jpg|alt=A close view of three blossoming trees behind which can be seen a large orchard and field in which a man is working, a village filled with buildings and houses in the background, under a bright sky|''[[View of Arles, Flowering Orchards]]'', April 1889. [[Neue Pinakothek]], Munich 
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==== Wheat fields ====
{{See also|Wheat Fields (Van Gogh series)|The Wheat Field}}
[[File:Vincent van Gogh - Wheatfield under thunderclouds - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|''[[Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds]]'', 1890, [[Van Gogh Museum]], Amsterdam, Netherlands|alt= An expansive painting of a wheatfield, with green hills through the centre underneath dark and forbidding skies.]]

Van Gogh made several painting excursions during visits to the landscape around Arles. He made paintings of harvests, wheat fields and other rural landmarks of the area, including ''The Old Mill'' (1888); a good example of a picturesque structure bordering the wheat fields beyond.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1984|loc= 177}} At various points, Van Gogh painted the view from his window – at The Hague, Antwerp, and Paris. These works culminated in ''[[The Wheat Field]]'' series, which depicted the view from his cells in the asylum at Saint-Rémy.{{sfnp|Hulsker|1980|loc=390–394}}

Many of the late paintings are sombre but essentially optimistic and, right up to the time of Van Gogh's death, reflect his desire to return to lucid mental health. Yet some of his final works reflect his deepening concerns.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=283}}{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 680–686}} Writing in July 1890, from Auvers, Van Gogh said that he had become absorbed "in the immense plain against the hills, boundless as the sea, delicate yellow".{{sfnp|Edwards|1989|loc=115}}

Van Gogh was captivated by the fields in May when the wheat was young and green. His ''Wheatfields at Auvers with White House'' shows a more subdued palette of yellows and blues, which creates a sense of idyllic harmony.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 654}}

About 10 July 1890, Van Gogh wrote to Theo of "vast fields of wheat under troubled skies".{{refn|{{harvp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let898/letter.html Letter 898]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh and Jo van Gogh-Bonger. Auvers-sur-Oise, on or about Thursday, 10 July 1890.}}}} ''[[Wheatfield with Crows]]'' shows the artist's state of mind in his final days; Hulsker describes the work as a "doom-filled painting with threatening skies and ill-omened crows".{{sfnp|Hulsker|1990|loc=478–479}} Its dark palette and heavy brushstrokes convey a sense of menace.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 680}}

<gallery widths="165px" heights="135px" class="center">
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 007.jpg|alt= A bright squarish painting of a wheatfield, a river, houses, mountains and the rising sun.|''Enclosed Wheat Field with Rising Sun'', May 1889, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh, Dutch - Rain - Google Art Project.jpg|alt= A squarish painting of a wheatfield in a dense pouring rain.|''[[Rain (Van Gogh)|Rain]]'' or ''Enclosed Wheat Field in the Rain'', November 1889, [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]], [[Philadelphia]]
File:Landscape with Wheat Sheaves and Rising Moon (F735).jpg|alt= A squarish painting of a darkened wheatfield of stacks, with a river and mountains in the background under a rising full moon.|''[[Wheat Fields]]'', early June 1889. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
File:Vincent van Gogh - House at Auvers - Google Art Project.jpg|alt= A squarish painting of a wheatfield, in the afternoon, with landscape and a white house in the background.|''Wheat Field at Auvers with White House'', June 1890, [[The Phillips Collection]], Washington D.C.
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