''Tree Roots'' is an oil painting by

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

that he painted in July 1890 when he lived in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. The painting is an example of the double-square canvases that he employed in his last landscapes.

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. The painting is considered by some to be his last painting before his death late July 1890.

Jan Hulsker Jan Hulsker (2 October 1907, The Hague – 9 November 2002, Vancouver) was a Dutch art historian especially noted for his work on Vincent van Gogh. He studied Dutch literature in Leiden and was promoted with a thesis on the author Aart van der Lee ...

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.Hulsker (1980) p. 476 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 Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19t ...

and

German expressionism German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...

. In 1882, while at

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

, 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 Theo is a given name and a hypocorism. Greek origin Many names beginning with the root "Theo-" derive from the Ancient Greek word ''theos'' (''θεός''), which means god, for example: *Feminine names: Thea, Theodora, Theodosia, Theophania, ...

, van Gogh said that he wanted to express something of life's struggle in these drawings. 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. In 2020, researchers at the Institut Van Gogh and the Van Gogh Museum determined the likely location where the painting was made, based on an historical postcard, to be on the rue Daubigny in Auvers-sur-Oise. The location is about 150 metres from Auberge Ravoux, Van Gogh's hotel at the time. File: Vincent van Gogh - Undergrowth with Two Figures (F773).jpg, alt= A couple are walking in the woods. There are flowers everywhere and the tree trunks are violet. The couple seem almost to merge into the woods., ''Undergrowth with Two Figures'', oil on canvas 50 x 100, late June 1890 (F773, JH2041). File:Vincent van Gogh - Study of a Tree (F933).jpg, alt= A drawing of gnarled black tree roots, ''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 The Kröller-Müller Museum () is a national art museum and sculpture garden, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands. The museum, founded by art collector Helene Kröller-Müller within the extensive grounds of ...

, Otterlo (F933, JH142).

Works

Letters

References

Bibliography

* de la Faille, Jacob-Baart. ''The Works of Vincent van Gogh: His Paintings and Drawings''. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1970. * Hulsker, Jan. ''The Complete Van Gogh''. Oxford: Phaidon, 1980. * Naifeh, Steven; Smith, Gregory White. ''Van Gogh: The Life''. Profile Books, 2011. * van der Veen, Wouter; Knapp, Peter. ''Van Gogh in Auvers: His Last Days''. Monacelli Press, 2010.

External links

*
Tree Roots
' at the

Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum () is a Dutch art museum dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in the Museum Square in Amsterdam South, close to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Concertgebouw. The museum opene ...