Trees on a slope

Van Gogh's Trees on a Slope from 1887, now at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, belongs to his Paris period landscape studies made in the hills of Montmartre and the suburban fringes of the city. The specific character of slope-grown trees — their trunks angled by the incline, their root systems visible — gave him compositional material different from flat-ground subjects. The Rijksmuseum's holding of this work gives it permanent visibility in the national Dutch museum alongside their other Van Gogh acquisitions.

The slope gives the trees an angled, dynamic quality different from upright growth, their trunks leaning slightly with the incline. Van Gogh's Paris period palette and brushwork are visible — lighter and more varied than Nuenen, the foliage rendered with Impressionist broken color. The slope itself provides an unusual ground plane within the composition.