Olive Orchard by Vincent Van Gogh

Olive Orchard by Vincent Van Gogh, oil on canvas 1889, is a landscape painting of a grove of gnarled olive trees with grey leaves on hilly, sandy soil beneath a deep blue sky. Painted in emphatic, broken brushstrokes of swirling movement in similar, contrasting and near complementary colours of grey, mauve, violet, green, blue and white, the painting expressively captures the inner life and quasi-spiritual nature of trees, dirt, leaves and sky. Van Gogh created the picture as part of series of olive tree landscapes while residing at the asylum in Saint Remy, and the expressive, if not near expressionistic, power of Van Gogh’s mature, Post-Impressionist style is brazenly apparent in the vibrant colours and forms of the olive orchards of the Provence region of France. Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890) was a Dutch painter of the Post-Impressionist movement known for bold, expressive drawing, swirling brushstrokes and intense, heightened colours. In early adulthood Van Gogh worked as an art dealer, teacher and pastor before taking up the full time study of drawing and painting in his late twenties. Influenced by Rembrandt, the 19th century Realists and Barbizon school, Van Gogh’s early paintings featured studies of workers and peasants in sombre earth tones. Moving to France in 1886, Van Gogh met with the startling innovations of the Impressionist painters and began to apply their approach to colour and subject matter, which continued into the mature style for which the artist is most renowned. Van Gogh produced many hundreds of drawings and paintings including portraits, landscapes, still life and flower paintings, and numerous self-portraits that became a dominating influence on the modern art of the 20th century and made him one of the most popular artists of all time.