Editing Vincent van Gogh (section)

====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>