Tree Roots

Tree Roots

Artist	Vincent van Gogh
Year	1890
Catalogue	F816, JH2113
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	50.0 cm × 100.0 cm (19.7 in × 40.6 in)
Location	Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Tree Roots is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh that he painted in July 1890 when he lived in Auvers-sur-Oise, France.^[1]^[2] The painting is an example of the double-square canvases that he employed in his last landscapes.^[3]

Background

Van Gogh spent the last few months of his life in Auvers-sur-Oise, a small town just north of Paris, after he left an asylum at Saint-Rémy in May 1890.^[4] The painting is considered by some to be his last painting before his death late July 1890.^{[Works 1]}

Jan Hulsker considers it the most original of his double-square canvases. The viewer thinks he can identify tree roots and trunks, but is hard put to identify the subject as a whole.^[5] Van der Veen and Knapp comment that in this painting, as also in Undergrowth with Two Figures, the painting itself and not the subject is pre-eminent, heralding abstract painting and German expressionism.^[6]

As far back as 1882, while at The Hague, van Gogh had made a study of tree roots, Study of a Tree (below), which he had completed at the same time as a larger version (now lost) of Sorrow. In a letter to his brother Theo, van Gogh said that he wanted to express something of life's struggle in these drawings.^{[Letters 1]} It is not known whether he had returned to the same thoughts with his 1890 Tree Roots. The letters give no hint and the colours are perhaps too bright for such sombre thoughts.^{[Works 1]}

Undergrowth with Two Figures, oil on canvas 50 x 100, late June 1890 (F773, JH2041).^{[Works 2]}^{[Letters 2]}^{[Letters 3]}
Tree roots in a sandy ground ('Les racines'), pencil, black chalk, brush in ink, brown and grey wash, opaque watercolour on watercolour paper, April–May 1882,Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (F933, JH142).^{[Works 3]}^{[Works 4]}^{[Letters 1]}

Works

1 2 "Tree Roots, 1890". Van Gogh Museum.
↑ Brooks, D. "Undergrowth with Two Figures". The Vincent van Gogh Gallery, endorsed by Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. David Brooks (self-published).
↑ "Tree roots in a sandy ground ('Les racines')". Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo.
↑ Brooks, D. "Tree Roots in a Sandy Ground ("Les Racines")". The Vincent van Gogh Gallery, endorsed by Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. David Brooks (self-published).

Letters

1 2 "Letter 222: To Theo van Gogh. The Hague, Monday, 1 May 1882". Vincent van Gogh: The Letters. Van Gogh Museum. Paragraph 5. I wanted to express something of life’s struggle ... in those gnarled black roots with their knots.
↑ "Letter 891: To Theo van Gogh. Auvers-sur-Oise, Tuesday, 24 June 1890". Vincent van Gogh: The Letters. Van Gogh Museum. Note 10. ... one that makes a pendant of undergrowth, lilac trunks of poplars ...
↑ "Letter 896: To Theo van Gogh and Jo van Gogh-Bonger. Auvers-sur-Oise, Wednesday, 2 July 1890". Vincent van Gogh: The Letters. Van Gogh Museum. Note 5. Then undergrowth, violet trunks of poplars which cross the landscape perpendicularly like columns ... [includes a sketch]

References

↑ van der Veen, Wouter; Knapp, Peter (2010). Van Gogh in Auvers: His Last Days. The Monacelli Press. p. 242. ISBN 1-58093-301-7.
↑ de la Faille, Jacob Baart (1970). The works of Vincent van Gogh. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff. p. 307.
↑ Hulsker, Jan (1986). The Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, Drawings, Sketches. Random House. p. 476. ISBN 0-517-44867-X.
↑ Naifeh, Steven; White Smith, Gregory (2011). Van Gogh: The Life. Random House. p. 822 ff. ISBN 0-375-50748-5.
↑ Hulsker (1980) p. 476
↑ van der Veen and Knapp (2010) pp. 164, 242

Bibliography

de la Faille, Jacob-Baart. The Works of Vincent van Gogh: His Paintings and Drawings. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1970. ISBN 978-1-55660-811-7
Hulsker, Jan. The Complete Van Gogh. Oxford: Phaidon, 1980. ISBN 0-7148-2028-8
Naifeh, Steven; Smith, Gregory White. Van Gogh: The Life. Profile Books, 2011. ISBN 978-1-84668-010-6
van der Veen, Wouter; Knapp, Peter. Van Gogh in Auvers: His Last Days. Monacelli Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-58093-301-8

Vincent van Gogh

General	Biography Chronology Health Death Posthumous fame Cultural depictions List of works Post-Impressionism Auberge Ravoux Café du Tambourin The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Family	Theo van Gogh Wil van Gogh Johanna van Gogh-Bonger Andries Bonger Theo van Gogh (film director) Anton Mauve Johannes Stricker

Friends	Anthon van Rappard Paul Gachet Paul Gauguin Émile Bernard John Peter Russell Eugène Boch Anna Boch Agostina Segatori

Groups of works	Self portraits Portraits Early works Lost early works Sien Peasant Character Studies Cottages Van Gogh's family in his art Montmartre Le Moulin de la Galette Asnières Seine Wheat Fields Flowering Orchards Almond Blossoms Langlois Bridge at Arles Saintes-Maries Paintings of Children Décoration for the Yellow House The Roulin Family Hospital in Arles Butterflies Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy The Enclosed Wheat Field at Saint-Rémy Trees and Undergrowth Copies by Vincent van Gogh Olive Trees Display at Les XX, 1890 Auvers size 30 canvases Auvers Double-squares and Squares Japonaiserie Sunflowers Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Netherlands) Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Paris) Meadows near Rijswijk and the Schenkweg Houses at Auvers

Paintings	The 'Laakmolen' near The Hague Girl in White in the Woods Lying Cow Farmhouses Among Trees Bulb Fields Drawbridge in Nieuw-Amsterdam Old Church Tower at Nuenen Cart with Black Ox Cart with Red and White Ox Avenue of Poplars in Autumn Still Life with Straw Hat The Potato Eaters Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette Poppy Flowers Wheat Field with a Lark View of Paris from Vincent's Room in the Rue Lepic Portrait of Père Tanguy A Woman Walking in a Garden Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin Landscape with Snow La Mousmé The Night Café The Yellow House Café Terrace at Night Starry Night Over the Rhône Portrait of the Artist's Mother Bedroom in Arles Falling Autumn Leaves L'Arlésienne The Red Vineyard Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles) Les Arènes Interior of a Restaurant in Arles A Lane near Arles View of Arles, Flowering Orchards Arles: View from the Wheat Fields Sunset at Montmajour Crab on its Back Two Crabs Irises The Starry Night Self-portrait (1889) A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-Paul Enclosed Field with Peasant Green Wheat Field with Cypress Ivy Farmhouse in Provence Road with Cypress and Star At Eternity's Gate Thatched Cottages and Houses Portrait of Dr. Gachet Doctor Gachet's Garden in Auvers Houses at Auvers White House at Night Girl in White The Church at Auvers Daubigny's Garden Farms near Auvers Blossoming Chestnut Branches View of the Asylum and Chapel of Saint-Rémy Wheatfield with Crows Tree Roots Still Life: Vase with Pink Roses

Other works	Drawings, water-colours and prints 87 Hackford Road Sorrow Marsh with Water Lilies Torso of Venus and a Landscape Old Vineyard with Peasant Woman

Public collections	Van Gogh Museum Kröller-Müller Museum Musée d'Orsay

Portrayals	Lust for Life (novel film) Van Gogh (1948 film) Vincent (1987 film) Vincent & Theo (1990 film) Vincent (1990 opera) Van Gogh (1991 film) Vincent in Brixton (2003 play) "Vincent and the Doctor" (2010 TV episode) Van Gogh (2017 film)

Cataloguers	Jacob Baart de la Faille (1928 and 1970; "F") Jan Hulsker (1978, revised 1989; "JH")

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