Trees

Van Gogh's tree studies from his Paris period were both technical exercises and formal explorations of the structural complexity of bare or leafy trees against sky. He had studied Dutch tree drawings — Ruisdael, Hobbema — and brought that northern tradition into contact with the Impressionist observation of light on foliage. The trees become, in the Paris period, a transitional subject: in Nuenen they were dark presences against winter skies; in Paris they begin to dissolve in light; in Arles they will writhe with inner energy. These middle-period tree studies document the crucial chromatic transition.

Tree trunks are rendered in dark sienna and umber with relatively conventional tonal modelling. The foliage or bare branches are treated with shorter, lighter strokes that begin to fragment the form. A lighter, cooler palette distinguishes these works from the Nuenen tree subjects.