Vincent Van Gogh - Oliviers à Montmajour

"[...] I've just come back from a day at Montmajour [...] If it had been bigger, it would have been reminiscent of Zola's Paradou, with its tall reeds, vines, ivy, fig trees, olive trees, pomegranate trees with fat flowers of the brightest orange, hundred-year-old cypresses, ash and willow trees, rock oaks [...] I brought back another large drawing of it." (Vincent Van Gogh, letter to his brother Theo, July 1888).

In July 1888, while living in Arles, Vincent Van Gogh produced a series of six large-scale drawings on the Provençal site of the former Abbey of Montmajour, including Oliviers : Montajour (Olive Trees in Montmajour), considered by specialists as one of the high points of his graphic work.

The artist worked in the open air, among the trees and in the midst of nature, with which he engaged in a highly intimate and expressive dialogue.

Using a reed pen, which he favoured over a quill at that time, Van Gogh masterfully laid out an immense network of small hatchings on the surface of the paper, giving rhythm to the composition.

In Oliviers : Montmajour, Van Gogh depicts the fury of the Mistral wind that makes the dry grass crackle and the pine trees tremble, the land undulating like waves and the vistas receding towards the horizon. Paradoxically, this tumultuous nature gives rise to a very "Japanese" clarity. Fascinated by the colour effects and bold perspectives of Japanese prints, Vincent Van Gogh gradually stylised his own work to give a "true idea of the simplicity of nature".