Landscape with Trees and Figures

Van Gogh's Landscape with Trees and Figures from 1889, now at the Baltimore Museum of Art, belongs to his Saint-Rémy period's combination of landscape and human presence. Trees and figures together gave him material for exploring the relationship between the stable natural world and the transient human element within it. The Baltimore Museum of Art holds a distinguished collection of European and American painting, and this Van Gogh is among its significant Post-Impressionist holdings.

The composition places human figures within a landscape dominated by trees, rendered with Van Gogh's characteristic Saint-Rémy energy — the trees animated by swirling brushwork, the figures handled with more controlled, direct observation. His palette uses the warm greens and ochres of the Mediterranean landscape against the blue of the sky.