Van Gogh’s cypresses, a sequel to the sunflowers

For an formidable exhibition, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Artwork is to assemble 40 of Van Gogh’s work and drawings of cypresses. These hovering timber turned one of many artist’s key motifs in Provence and seem in his masterpiece Starry Night time (June 1889). Van Gogh’s Cypresses, chosen by the museum’s curator Susan Stein, will run from 22 Might to 27 August 2023.

Writing to his brother Theo in June 1889, Vincent expressed his willpower to seize the essence of those placing timber: “The cypresses nonetheless preoccupy me, I’d love to do one thing with them just like the canvases of the sunflowers as a result of it astonishes me that nobody has but achieved them as I see them”. They did certainly develop into his very private imaginative and prescient.

Vincent later in contrast the 2 motifs—and thought of their variations. Visually, the tree’s darkish foliage and the flower’s shiny yellow petals will be seen as opposites. The longevity of the cypress historically evokes dying and immortality, whereas the sunflower symbolises the transitory joys of life. However for Van Gogh, each motifs have been key components in his notion of the panorama of Provence.

Van Gogh first painted cypresses within the spring of 1888, just a few months after his arrival in Arles. These early works embrace Drawbridge (Might 1888), by which a pair of cypresses rise into the sky. As so usually, Van Gogh exaggerated the peak of his timber, which turns into obvious right here as soon as one really compares the cypresses to the low buildings that they overshadow.

Nevertheless it was after Van Gogh’s transfer to the asylum on the outskirts of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in Might 1889 that the cypresses assumed a vital significance. This space, on the foot of the tall hills generally known as Les Alpilles, was famend for these timber.

A Wheat Discipline, with Cypresses is amongst Van Gogh’s best Saint-Rémy landscapes. He made three variations, two of which will likely be within the Met present: the primary (June 1889), painted outside, within the museum’s personal assortment, and an much more highly effective work achieved just a few months later in his studio (September 1889), approaching mortgage from London’s Nationwide Gallery. This would be the first time that these two footage have been exhibited collectively since 1901.

In each variations a golden band of ripened wheat ripples throughout the foreground, enlivened by a scattering of scarlet poppies. A number of olive timber lie marooned within the sea of wheat and barely additional away stands a clump of darkish cypresses, shut collectively. The tallest one virtually reaches the highest of the canvas, silhouetted in opposition to the swirling clouds.

Starry Night time (June 1889), painted in the identical month as the unique A Wheat Discipline, with Cypresses, could be very completely different, as a nocturnal scene. Van Gogh captured the dynamism of the twisted types of the timber, creating a robust visible hyperlink between the earth and the heavens. Now very hardly ever lent, Starry Night time will journey up Fifth Avenue to the Met exhibition.

In another Saint-Rémy landscapes, the timber dominate the compositions, as within the Met’s personal Cypresses (June 1889). Vincent additionally drew a replica of this portray, to ship to Theo in Paris and present what he was engaged on. Fortuitously, this drawing ultimately ended up just a few miles away from the Met on the Brooklyn Museum, and it too will likely be coming to the present.

In Window within the Studio (September-October 1889), an intimate depiction of Van Gogh’s workroom, the significance of the cypresses might hardly be extra evident. As I level out in my e-book Starry Night time: Van Gogh on the Asylum, two very sketchily depicted work dangle on the precise aspect of the studio wall: the decrease one might be Starry Night time and the higher one is Timber within the Backyard of the Asylum (September-October 1889), which is now in a non-public assortment—it was auctioned by Christie’s in 2010 for £9m.

Though just about all of the Met’s loans have now been finalised, one work stays unsure: Orchard with Cypresses (April 1888). This bought on 9 November at Christie’s, New York for $117m, a document worth for a Van Gogh. On the finish of {the catalogue} entry, Christie’s recorded that it had been requested for the Met exhibition as “one of many centerpiece works”. Assuming the nameless new proprietor is keen to comply with a mortgage, it might dangle among the many highest firm in Van Gogh’s Cypresses.