NARRATOR:
In May 1889, Vincent van Gogh voluntarily entered the small mental hospital in the town of Saint-Rémy, in the south of France. On October 5, he wrote to his brother Theo about this picture, describing:
VAN GOGH (ACTOR):
“…a completely yellow mulberry tree which stands out against the blue of the sky.”
NARRATOR:
All the elements interact to create a dynamic tension—contrasting colors clash, wriggling brushstrokes animate the ground, diagonal strokes enliven the brilliant blue sky. Everything trembles. The dense array of golden leaves seems to explode exuberantly in all directions, as if energized by some mysterious force from within.
Despite the speedy execution of his pictures, van Gogh’s letters show that they were carefully thought out. In this picture, for example, he sculpted the leaves in a thick layer of chrome yellow, which he troweled on and modeled with his brush handle.
One of the few who appreciated van Gogh’s accomplishment during his lifetime was fellow-painter Camile Pissarro. He saw this Mulberry Tree at Theo van Gogh’s Paris gallery, and immediately exchanged one of his own pictures for the luminous canvas.
Two years after the artist’s suicide at age 37, a Dutch journalist wrote about his countryman:
JOURNALIST (ACTOR):
“Those strange paintings bear witness to the striving for an artistic formula by an indisputable genius, who was overcome in the struggle for artistic existence. I am convinced that something of which we do not yet dream will be discovered along the path he indicated: a truly modern art.”
NARRATOR:
Indeed, Van Gogh’s expressive color, shape, and line would soon become the hallmarks of much subsequent 20th-century painting.
The Mulberry Tree
October 1889
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)
On View
Van Gogh suffered from delicate mental and physical health throughout his life. In the spring of 1889, following a series of nervous breakdowns, he committed himself to an asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. There his work evolved away from the hallucinatory color of his Arles period toward the ever more vigorous brushwork and ever more liberally applied paint of his late manner. Here the flaming foliage of the mulberry tree, the rushing sky and hillside are so richly painted that the picture’s surface becomes a kind of bas-relief sculpture. Van Gogh was particularly pleased with this painting, remarking in letters to his siblings that he considered it his most successful treatment of its theme.
Details
- Artist Name: Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)
- Title: The Mulberry Tree
- Date: October 1889
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 21-1/4 x 25-1/2 in. (54 x 65 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation, Gift of Mr. Norton Simon
- Accession Number: M.1976.09.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
Camille Pissarro, Paris, by 1890, by inheritance to;
Madame C. Pissarro, Paris;
[Ambroise Vollard, Paris].
Alphonse Kann (1870-1948), Saint Germain-en-Laye by 1928, still in 1934, presumably inherited by;
Michael Stewart, London.
[David Gibbs, London and New York, sold 19 October 1961 to];
[Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., London, sold 12 November 1961 to];
Norton Simon, gift 1976 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Madame C. Pissarro, Paris;
[Ambroise Vollard, Paris].
Alphonse Kann (1870-1948), Saint Germain-en-Laye by 1928, still in 1934, presumably inherited by;
Michael Stewart, London.
[David Gibbs, London and New York, sold 19 October 1961 to];
[Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., London, sold 12 November 1961 to];
Norton Simon, gift 1976 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
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[on loan]
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