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Olive Trees

1889
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 822
This is one of five pictures of olive orchards that Van Gogh made in November 1889. Painted directly from nature but animated by Seurat-like stippling and stylized passages of broken color, these works responded to recent compositions by Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard. "What I’ve done is a rather harsh and coarse realism beside their abstractions," Van Gogh observed, "but it will nevertheless impart a rustic note, and will smell of the soil."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Olive Trees
  • Artist: Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, Zundert 1853–1890 Auvers-sur-Oise)
  • Date: 1889
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 28 5/8 x 36 1/4 in. (72.7 x 92.1 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: The Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Collection, Gift of Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, 1998, Bequest of Walter H. Annenberg, 2002
  • Object Number: 1998.325.1
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

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The Flowering Orchard, Vincent van Gogh Dutch, Oil on canvas
The Flowering Orchard
Vincent van Gogh
1888
Lettres de Vincent van Gogh a Son Frère Théo
Vincent van Gogh
1937
The Potato Peeler (reverse: Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat), Vincent van Gogh Dutch, Oil on canvas
The Potato Peeler (reverse: Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat)
Vincent van Gogh
1885
Road in Etten, Vincent van Gogh Dutch, Chalk, pencil, pastel, watercolor. Underdrawing in pen and brown ink.
Road in Etten
Vincent van Gogh
1881
Wheat Field, Vincent van Gogh Dutch, Reed pen and logwood ink over graphite on wove paper
Wheat Field
Vincent van Gogh
July 1888

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