Omens of Death- Van Gogh’s Cypress Trees
Vincent Van Gogh is one of the world’s most well known artists. His work tends to appeal to a large
audience, because he represents a modern obsession with neurodivergence and challenging the status
quo. Van Gogh often painted natural scenes, and his work is divided into chronological sections based
on his locations throughout life. Van Gogh is perhaps the most well documented artist of his time,
if not all time, because his letters serve as resources for us to understand his perspective. This exhibition
serves to explore his state of mind during the time he was in the asylum in Saint-Remy, and to explore
Van Gogh’s premonition with death, leading up to his own death in 1890. Can anything be said from
looking at his works and writings from the time to confirm or deny the accepted explanations of his
demise? The prevailing and accepted explanation is suicide, but certain evidences propose doubt
on the answer that the man himself wanted us to pick. Why would a man who wanted to die drag
himself back to society after a self inflicted wound, and seek help? Van Gogh was not one who would
attempt suicide for attention and fail on purpose. As you explore his works, you may see that the man
himself was not in such a state to do this. How does the series of paintings relate to Van Gogh’s death,
if at all, and do they give any credibility to either interpretation of his death?
Vincent van Gogh
Self-Portrait with Straw Hat
Summer 1887
Oil on canvas
40.6 × 31.8 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
One of Van Gogh's self portraits, painted in 1887, allows the viewer to acquaint themselves
with the subject of our scrutiny, and his painting style. He paints in large brushstrokes, separating
the subject into distinct areas of colour, portraying the idea of the subject, but more importantly,
an emotion, and an idea beyond the physical. Observe how he paints himself, consider it. Create
a supposition that will either be confirmed or denied by his other works.
Vincent van Gogh
The Starry Night
June 1889
Oil on canvas
73.7 × 92.1 cm (29 × 36 1/4 in.)
Lillie P. Bliss Bequest
Accession no. 472.1941
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
This is undoubtedly Van Gogh's most famous work. Painted after the main subject of exhibition,
but important for the viewer to reacquaint themselves with their former experiences- to remind
them of the culture that has been created. A swirling sky, on fire with light: the beautiful creation
of an injured mind, or the reinterpretation through a more inventive lens? Let the viewer choose his
own reading.
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890)
Cypresses
1889
Oil on canvas
93.4 × 74 cm (36 3/4 × 29 1/8 in.)
Rogers Fund, 1949
Accession no. 49.30
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
(On view, Gallery 825)
"Cypresses" shows two tall trees, like "grand obelisks" as the painter himself described them. Cypress trees are sometimes considered a symbol of death, and Van Gogh himself compares them to another symbol of mortality: the Egyptian obelisk that would have marked a tomb. He painted multiple works containing the trees as a center focus- a premonition, a fear, or even a message? He never explicitly says, but his letters from the time show him in a seemingly good humour, and a better one than before he entered the asylum.
Vincent van Gogh
Road with Cypress and Star
February 1890
Oil on canvas
43.5 cm x 27.2 cm
Van Gogh Museum
This is another example, painted in the same time frame. The row of cypress trees, over a similar
background, dominating the landscape. The swirling brushstrokes that do not accurately represent
each leaf, but instead represent what the leaves do as a whole. Leaving the bright scene dominated
by the dark values of the trees, it is intentionally contrasting light and dark- life and death. The
foliage is bright, the sky is saturated and welcoming like a summers day, but still the trees cut the
landscape and tower to the heavens.
Vincent van Gogh
Wheat Field with Cypresses
September 1889
Oil on canvas
72.4 × 91.4 cm (28 1/2 × 36 in.)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York
Accession no. 1993.132
(On view, usually Gallery 825)
We recognize the same two trees and the same mountainous background, from a new angle,
as "Cypresses". This time, we also see a wheat field, another common subject from Van Gogh.
The pyramid of the painting draws the eyes up the trees, to the heavens, and elicits again
the ideas of mortality, death, and the beyond. The sky fills nearly half the canvas, and puts
contrast between the reminders of mortality below and the hope above.
Vincent van Gogh
Wheatfield with Crows
July 1890
Oil on canvas
50.2 × 103 cm (19 3/4 × 40 1/2 in.)
Van Gogh Museum
Amsterdam
Van Goghs last work, another wheat field, is melancholy, but also seems to be representational.
Perhaps we imagine the crows scattering from the gunshot, or as omens of death themselves, or
as simply a common sight above a wheat field. This painting especially reminds us of how our
per-conceptions influence our interpretation of art, and how this feedback loop further ingrains
our own idea into the mind. If Van Gogh killed himself, then we read the painting as his suicide
note, one last statement about the world, and how it failed him, but his art was an escape. An
escape that also was not enough. Suicide never happens without strong reason, and Van Gogh
wanted to get better. He felt as if he was getting better. The dark sky makes one see a dark thought
entering, but what if it was simply a raincloud? Can anyone truly say the truth, about something
they did not witness, when one interpretation serves their own ideas, the way they want to see the
artist?
