Road with Cypress and Star - Misplaced Pages

A painting by Vincent van Gogh from 1890

Road with Cypress and Star

Artist	Vincent van Gogh
Year	1890 (1890)
Catalogue	F683 JH1982
Medium	Oil on canvas
Movement	Post Impressionism
Dimensions	92 cm × 73 cm (36 in × 29 in)
Location	Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Road with Cypress and Star (Dutch: Cypres bij sterrennacht), also known as Country Road in Provence by Night, is an 1890 oil-on-canvas painting by Dutch post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. It is the last painting he made in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. The painting is part of the large van Gogh collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park at Otterlo in the Netherlands.

Production and influences

Road with Cypress and Star was painted in May 1890. In an earlier letter to his brother Theo, van Gogh wrote that cypresses were "always occupying thoughts" and that he found them "beautiful of line" and proportioned like an Egyptian obelisk. He had also intended on painting a nighttime view of the trees since his stay in Arles in 1888.

Erickson suggests that the painting is influenced by the Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, visible in the prominent road and cypress tree. The painting is one of several in which van Gogh uses cypresses prominently, and — as in Road with Cypress and Star — many of the paintings depict trees that extend beyond the top of the canvas. After finishing the work, in June 1890 while at Auvers-sur-Oise, van Gogh wrote to his friend and fellow artist Paul Gauguin that the painting's themes are similar to those of Gauguin's work Christ in the Garden of Olives.

The orientation of the night sky objects may have been influenced by a conjunction of heavenly bodies on 20 April 1890, when Mercury and Venus were at 3 degrees of separation and together had luminescence comparable to Sirius.

Analysis

According to Kathleen Powers Erickson, Road with Cypress and Star more strongly reflects van Gogh's belief that he would soon die than the earlier painting The Starry Night. She supports this by comparing the evening star on the left of the painting, which is barely visible, to the emerging crescent moon on the right side; the cypress tree in the middle, which divides these symbols of the old and the new, is described as an "obelisk of death". She finds the pair of travelers an indication of van Gogh's need for companionship.

Naomi Maurer also writes that Road with Cypress and Star reflects the painter's feeling that he would soon die. She views the painting as depicting human life as being "in the context of infinity and eternity", with the two travelers and their journey dominated by the cypress in the centre. The evening star and crescent moon on either side of the tree she describes as adding "cosmic perspective to the earthly scene" and suggesting a "sentient universe filled with love".

References

Footnotes

^ Maurer 1998, p. 106.
^ Erickson 1998, p. 176.
Welsh-Ovcharov 1987, p. 55.
Erickson 1998, p. 160.
Erickson 1998, p. 172.
Boime 2008, p. 2.

Bibliography

Boime, Albert (2008). Revelation of Modernism: Responses to Cultural Crises in Fin-de-Siècle Painting. Columbia: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 978-0-8262-1780-6.
Erickson, Kathleen Powers (1998). At Eternity's Gate : The Spiritual Vision of Vincent Van Gogh. Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-3856-8.
Maurer, Naomi (1998). The Pursuit of Spiritual Wisdom : The Thought and Art of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. London: Associated University Presses in association with the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. ISBN 978-0-8386-3749-4.
Welsh-Ovcharov, Bogomila (1987). "Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Albert Aurier: The Perception of Life in Death". In Leith, James (ed.). Symbols in Life and Art: The Royal Society of Canada Symposium in Memory of George Whalley. Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 52–65. ISBN 978-0-7735-0616-9.

Olson, Donald; Doescher, Russell (October 1988). "Van Gogh, Two Planets, and the Moon". Sky & Telescope. 76 (4): 406–408. Bibcode:1988S&T....76..406O.

External links

Van Gogh, paintings and drawings: a special loan exhibition, a fully digitized exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, which contains material on this painting (see index)

Vincent van Gogh

General

Groups of
works

Early works (1881–82)
Portraits (1881–1890)
Peasant Character Studies (1881–1885)
Van Gogh's family in his art (1881–1888)
Sien (1882–83)
Cottages (1883–1885)
Water Mill at Gennep (1884)
Still life paintings, Netherlands (1884–85)
Old Church Tower at Nuenen (1884–85)
Amsterdam (1885)
Wheat Fields (1885–1890)
Le Moulin de la Galette (1886)
Still life paintings, Paris (1886–87)
Montmartre (1886–87)
Self portraits (1886–1889)
Outskirts of Paris (1887)
Asnières (1887)
Seine (1887)
Japonaiserie (1887)
Sunflowers (1887–1889)
Trees and Undergrowth (1887–1890)
Copies by Vincent van Gogh (1887–1890)
Langlois Bridge at Arles (1888)
Saintes-Maries (1888)
Boats du Rhône (1888)
Décoration for the Yellow House (1888)
The Roulin Family (1888–89)
Hospital in Arles (1888–89)
Flowering Orchards (1888–89)
Almond Blossoms (1888–1890)
Paintings of Children (1888–1890)
The Wheat Field (1889)
Reaper (1889)
Olive Trees (1889)
Wheat Fields (1889)
Butterflies (1889–90)
Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy (1889–90)
Auvers size 30 canvases (1890)
Auvers Double-squares and Squares (1890)
Lost works by Vincent van Gogh
Display at Les XX, 1890

Oil paintings

1882	Beach at Scheveningen in Stormy Weather Girl in White in the Woods Lying Cow A Girl in the Street, Two Coaches in the Background
1883	Cows in the Meadow Farmhouses Among Trees Bulb Fields Landscape with a Church at Twilight Landscape with Dunes Footbridge across a Ditch Marshy Landscape A Wind-Beaten Tree Farm with Stacks of Peat Farmhouses in Loosduinen near The Hague at Twilight Three Figures near a Canal with Windmill
1884	Two Rats Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen Landscape with Pollard Willows Cart with Black Ox Cart with Red and White Ox Lane in Autumn Water Mill at Opwetten Water Mill at Kollen Village at Sunset Avenue of Poplars in Autumn Avenue of Poplars at Sunset Head of an Old Farmer's Wife in a White Hat
1885	Still Life with Straw Hat The Potato Eaters Peasant Woman Digging Peasant Woman Digging Up Potatoes Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette
1886	Vase with Red Poppies Vase with White and Red Carnations The Kingfisher
1887	Poppy Flowers Wheat Field with a Lark View of Paris from Vincent's Room in the Rue Lepic Portrait of Père Tanguy A Woman Walking in a Garden Imperial Fritillaries in a Copper Vase Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin Red Cabbages and Garlic
1888	Madame Roulin and Her Baby Landscape with Snow La Mousmé The Zouave Still Life: Vase with Oleanders The Night Café The Yellow House Van Gogh's Chair Café Terrace at Night Starry Night Over the Rhône Portrait of the Artist's Mother Bedroom in Arles The Painter on the Road to Tarascon Les Alyscamps A Lane in the Public Garden at Arles Falling Autumn Leaves L'Arlésienne The Red Vineyard Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles) Les Arènes Interior of a Restaurant in Arles A Lane near Arles Arles: View from the Wheat Fields Sunset at Montmajour Farmhouse in Provence Orchard with Cypresses
1889	Valley with Ploughman Seen from Above View of Arles, Flowering Orchards Portrait of Doctor Rey Crab on its Back Two Crabs Irises Lilac Bush The Starry Night The Gardener Self-portrait (1889) Self-portrait without beard Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-Paul A Road at Saint-Remy with Female Figure Enclosed Field with Peasant Rain Cypresses Wheat Field with Cypresses Green Wheat Field with Cypress The Diggers The Ravine of the Peyroulets Ivy View of the Asylum and Chapel of Saint-Rémy The Large Plane Trees The Mulberry Tree
1890	The Siesta Road with Cypress and Star At Eternity's Gate Thatched Cottages and Houses Portrait of Dr. Gachet Doctor Gachet's Garden in Auvers Houses at Auvers White House at Night Landscape with a Carriage and a Train Girl in White The Church at Auvers Daubigny's Garden Farms near Auvers The Cows The Town Hall at Auvers Blossoming Chestnut Branches Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat Still Life: Vase with Pink Roses Portrait of Adeline Ravoux Plain near Auvers Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds Wheatfield with Crows Prisoners' Round (after Gustave Doré) Tree Roots Landscape at Auvers in the Rain Poppy Field

Watercolours

Boy Cutting Grass with a Sickle (1881)
Meadows near Rijswijk and the Schenkweg (1882)
The 'Laakmolen' near The Hague (1882)
Church Pew with Worshippers (1882)
Woman on Her Deathbed (1883)
Landscape with Trees (1883)
Peatery in Drenthe (1883)
Landscape with Wheelbarrow (1883)
Drawbridge in Nieuw-Amsterdam (1883)
Breton Women (1888)
Old Vineyard with Peasant Woman (1890)

Drawings

Museums

Portrayals

Family

Cataloguers

Jacob Baart de la Faille (1928 and 1970; "F")
Jan Hulsker (1978, revised 1989; "JH")

v t e John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress
Literature	"The Celestial Railroad" The Enchanted Duplicator The Life and Death of Mr Badman The Land of Far-Beyond
Operas	The Pilgrim's Progress
Music	Symphony No. 5 (Vaughan Williams)
Films	Pilgrim's Progress: Journey to Heaven The Pilgrim's Progress (film)
Other	Mellor's Gardens Road with Cypress and Star Houghton House
Related	The Third Part of the Pilgrim's Progress Little Women The Pilgrim's Regress Beves of Hamtoun Knight of Cups

Categories:

Production and influences

Analysis

See also

References

External links