The Olive Orchard

Painted in November 1889 at Saint-Rémy, this large and fully resolved olive orchard at the National Gallery of Art in Washington is among the most controlled compositions in the asylum series — the trees arranged in orderly rows across undulating ground, the light silvery and diffuse rather than the agitated brilliance of his summer canvases. He described the olive trees to Gauguin in a letter of late 1889 as having 'something old, something infinitely patient' about them — ancient trees that had absorbed centuries of Mediterranean sun and human agriculture. This 'silver' version of the olive groves contrasts with the more turbulent canvases of the same subject: the palette of grey-green and silver was achieved through a specific technique of overlaid thin strokes that allowed the underlying tones to modify the surface colour. Van Gogh sent this and several companion canvases to Theo in Paris, where they were shown at the Salon des Indépendants in 1890.

The relatively controlled composition — trees in receding rows, ground surface following the slope — is unusual in the often turbulent olive series. The silvery grey-green of the foliage is built up through overlapping strokes of varying tone, creating a surface that appears to shimmer when seen from a distance.