''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 is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

that he painted in July 1890 when he lived in

Auvers-sur-Oise Auvers-sur-Oise (, "Auvers-on-Oise (river), Oise") is a Communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, department of Val-d'Oise, on the northwestern outskirts of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre zero, centre of Paris. I ...

, France. Likely Van Gogh's final painting, it 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 in 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 (visual arts), composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. ''Abstract art'', ''non-figurative art'', ''non- ...

and

German expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radi ...

. In 1882, while at

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, 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. 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. On April 14, 1991 ''Tree Roots'' was stolen from the Van Gogh museum along with 19 other paintings. ''Tree Roots'' was successfully recovered. In 2020, Wouter Van der Veen, scientific director of Institut Van Gogh determined the probable location where the painting was made, based on an historical postcard, to be on the rue Daubigny in

. He confirmed his finding with a historical photograph from circa 1907 in 2021. 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, Otterlo (F933, JH142). File:Post Card rue Daubigny.jpg, Post Card rue Daubigny, around 1910

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 opened o ...