Van Gogh’s Cypresses at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
by Gregg Chadwick
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, Zundert 1853–1890 Auvers-sur-Oise)
June 1889
Oil on canvas
36 3/4 x 29 1/8 in. (93.4 x 74 cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
“To give an idea of Provence it’s vital to do a few more canvases of cypresses and mountains.
… It took me all the time to observe the character of the pines, cypresses, &c. In the pure air here, the lines which don’t change and which one finds again at every step.”
Vincent Van Gogh to Theo Van Gogh,
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Saturday, 4 January 1890 836
“Van Gogh’s Cypresses” is the perfect exhibition for this moment in time. In our pixel soaked, AI drenched, climate change endangered world we are in need of a sojourn to physical reality and a soulful engagement with the natural world. This exhibition at the Met in New York brings together Van Gogh’s paintings, drawings, and illustrated letters that engage the theme of cypress trees. Many of the artworks are fragile and light sensitive, so are rarely loaned out. Expertly put together by Engelhard Curator of Nineteenth-Century European Painting Susan Alyson Stein, the current exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York runs from May 22–August 27, 2023.
