The Olive Orchard

The Olive Orchard at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, painted in November 1889, is one of the largest and most fully resolved paintings in the olive series. Van Gogh described the olive trees as 'extremely varied' in their forms and responses to light, and here he depicts the orchard as an organized agricultural space with trees arranged in rows across undulating terrain. The silvery light filtering through the grove — what he called 'the old silver' of olive foliage — gives the canvas a shimmering, almost lunar quality distinct from the more agitated versions in the series.

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.