Olive Grove

Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, November-December 1889

oil on canvas, 73.2 cm x 92.2 cm

Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

The olive groves around Saint-Rémy were a rewarding subject for Van Gogh. He was fascinated by the ever-changing colour of the olive trees and tried to find a good way of painting their irregular growth. His solution was to use swirling brushstrokes, bold outlines around the trunks and stylized blue shadows.

Van Gogh made his paintings of olive groves just after his friends Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard had painted a number of religious scenes. They created those works from their imaginations. Van Gogh disagreed with that approach. He felt that reality should always be the starting point: 'My ambition is truly limited to a few clods of earth, some sprouting wheat. An olive grove,' he wrote to Bernard.

F-number
F0707
JH-number
JH1857
Object number
s0045V1962
Dimensions
73.2 cm x 92.2 cm, 88.9 cm x 108.1 cm
Provenance
Sent by the artist from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence to his brother Theo van Gogh, Paris, at the beginning of January 1890; after his death on 25 January 1891, inherited by his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, Paris; administered until her death on 2 September 1925 by Jo van Gogh-Bonger, Bussum/Amsterdam/Laren; given on loan by Vincent Willem van Gogh, Laren to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, from 1927 to 1930; given on loan by Vincent Willem van Gogh to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, since 22 October 1931; transferred by Vincent Willem van Gogh, Laren, on 10 July 1962 to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam (ratified 28 December 1970); agreement concluded between the Vincent van Gogh Foundation and the State of the Netherlands, in which the preservation and management of the collection, and its placing in the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, to be realized in Amsterdam, is entrusted to the State, 21 July 1962; given on loan until the opening of the museum on 2 June 1973 to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh from 2 June 1973 and at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, since 1 July 1994.
artist
Vincent van Gogh
Credits (obliged to state)
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

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Manchester (England), Manchester City Art Gallery, Vincent van Gogh. Paintings & Drawings, Mainly from the Collection of Ir. V.W. van Gogh, 17 December 1955-4 February 1956, no. 69

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