Avenue of Plane Trees near Arles Station

Van Gogh's Avenue of Plane Trees near Arles Station, painted in 1888 and now at the Musée Rodin in Paris, depicts the tree-lined approach to the Arles railway station — a route he would have walked frequently given his habit of sending and receiving letters, packages, and paintings via the post. The plane trees with their characteristic dappled bark and spreading canopy created a formal avenue that Van Gogh rendered with the same energetic attention he gave to the cypresses and olive trees of the countryside. The Musée Rodin's holding connects this Van Gogh to Paris's greatest collection of Rodin sculpture.

The plane trees form a formal avenue receding into depth, their spreading canopies creating a ceiling of foliage above the composition. Van Gogh renders the distinctive mottled bark with observational specificity. His warm Arles palette captures the Mediterranean light filtering through the foliage. The composition's perspective recession is handled with convincing depth.