Olive trees

"Ah, my dear Theo, if you could see the olive trees at this time of year... The old-silver and silver foliage greening up against the blue.." - Vincent van Gogh to his brother

"Ah, my dear Theo, if you could see the olive trees at this time of year... The old-silver and silver foliage greening up against the blue.." - Vincent van Gogh to his brother

The ancient forms of olive trees curl with the surrounding swirls of vivid grass and sky. The entrancing dynamism of the brushstrokes and colours express a spiritual dimension to the natural world.

Van Gogh made 18 paintings in the Olive Tree Series in November 1889, during his stay at Saint Paul Asylum at Saint Remy. The Olive Grove: Orange Sky painting is one of this series.

"Ah, my dear Theo, if you could see the olive trees at this time of year... The old-silver and silver foliage greening up against the blue. And the orangeish ploughed soil." - Vincent van Gogh

"Ah, my dear Theo, if you could see the olive trees at this time of year. It’s too beautiful for me to dare paint it or be able to form an idea of it.” - Vincent van Gogh

Vincent wrote his brother Theo: "I did a landscape with olive trees and also a new study of a starry sky," calling this painting the daylight complement to the nocturnal, The Starry Night.

Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun belongs to the Olive Tree Series of paintings created by Van Gogh. Despite his illness and emotional turmoil, these paintings are some of his finest.

"..the olive trees are very characteristic... It’s silver, sometimes more blue, sometimes greenish, bronzed, whitening on ground that is yellow, pink, purplish or orangeish to dull red ochre."