Van Gogh's Olive Groves reunited in Amsterdam
Vincent van Gogh - Olive Trees - 1889 - MinneapolisVincent van Gogh - Olive Grove - 1889 - Kroller-Muller Museum
From 11 March to 12 June 2022, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is devoting an exhibition to the series of paintings of olive groves that Vincent van Gogh painted during his stay at the Saint-Rémy asylum.
Images: Vincent van Gogh, "Olive Trees" (or "Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun"), November 1889, oil on canvas, 73.6 × 92.7 cm, Minneapolis Institute of Art ·· Vincent van Gogh, "Olive Trees", June 1889, oil on canvas, 73.2 × 92.2 cm, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City.
A relentless sun casts its rays from the sky in the painting 'Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun' The trees are about to flee, but a heavy, clinging shadow seems to hold them back. Their existence becomes servitude. There is nothing to indicate free growth; on the contrary, the branches, tightly bent against each other, are reluctant to take their usual direction towards the light. They have covered their malformations with thick excrescences: the matter suffers for itselfIngo F. Walther
During his year-long stay at the Saint-Rémy asylum, Van Gogh created some 15 paintings depicting the olive groves surrounding the asylum. Although Van Gogh was fascinated by the shapes of the olive groves, and by how the sun and the atmosphere of Provence illuminated them, these paintings are more than a simple representation of nature. For Van Gogh, olive trees-as well as cypresses- had a deep spiritual significance, and several of them were created as a personal replica of Paul Gauguin's "Christ in the Garden of Olives".
In collaboration with the Dallas Museum of Art, the Van Gogh Museum has brought together these paintings of olive groves in what is the first exhibition devoted exclusively to this series. In most of the paintings, the olive groves are shown empty. In many of them, similar to Van Gogh's "sous bois" series of paintings, there is no background or context, just the trees with their uneven, twisted branches, devoid of any elegance or majesty. In others, such as the aforementioned "Olive Trees with a Yellow Sky and Sun", we are shown earth and sky, depicted, like the trees, with energetic, undulating brushstrokes.
In other paintings, such as "The Olive Pickers" in the Goulandris Foundation, there is a human presence, but even this is sad, anonymous, devoid of any emotion. Not even the effort of human labour, as in the paintings of Jean-François Millet -so admired by Van Gogh- can be appreciated. The figures are stoic, resigned, almost robotic, like an extension of the twisted branches of the olive groves.

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