Olive Trees by Vincent Van Gogh Cushion

Olive Trees is one of at least fourteen canvases of olive trees Van Gogh painted while in the asylum at Saint-Rémy in Provence in the south of France. The olive groves became one of Van Gogh’s favourite subjects during his time at Saint-Rémy and he came to see the tree as being characteristic of Provence. But it was also a subject which held deeper significance for Van Gogh. The previous summer he had abandoned an attempt to paint a religious subject showing Christ on the Mount of Olives. He found it difficult to work from his imagination and he now felt that it was important to use nature as a starting point. In his paintings of olive groves he found a subject that could carry religious associations in a way that was natural and unforced. In the exaggerated brushwork and vivid colour of paintings like the Olive Trees he was able to express the forces of nature that for him conveyed something passionate, supernatural and eternal.