Pollard Birches
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Nuenen, March 1884
pencil, pen and ink, watercolour, on paper, 39.5 cm x 54.2 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Van Gogh loved pollard trees with their gnarled trunks. They feature prominently in many of his paintings and drawings, including this one. In a letter to his brother Theo, he compared a row of pollard trees to a 'procession of orphan men'. What he meant was that nature had a soul of its own.
This work is part of a series of seven pen and ink drawings of Brabant landscapes from 1884. The compositions are compelling. The way he drew it, with a great deal of hatching, shows his individual style. The drawings form a high point of Van Gogh's work in the Netherlands.
- F-number
- F1240
- JH-number
- JH0469
- Object number
- d0364V1968
- Dimensions
- 39.5 cm x 54.2 cm
- Provenance
- With his brother Theo van Gogh, Parijs, after March 1884; after his death on 25 January 1891, inherited by his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, Paris; probably given by Jo van Gogh-Bonger to her sister-in-law Anna van Houten-van Gogh, Dieren, after 1891; after her death on 20 September 1930 inherited by a family friend H.J. Calkoen, Velsen; sold by H.J. Calkoen to the Theo van Gogh Foundation, Laren, 1963; transferred to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam, 1968; given on loan until the opening of the museum on 2 June 1973 to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh from 2 June 1973 and at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, since 1 July 1994.
- artist
- Vincent van Gogh
- Credits (obliged to state)
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
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