Vincent van Gogh – Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background

Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background is the landscape Vincent van Gogh painted at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in the summer of 1889: a grove of twisted green olive trees on pale, wave-like ground, the dark blue rocky peaks of the Alpilles behind them and a large white cloud curling across a blue sky. The original measures 72.6 x 91.4 cm and belongs to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. We paint it by hand in oil on canvas, in 17 sizes from 50 x 40 to 205 x 164 cm or to your own measurement, and send you a photograph of the finished work for approval before dispatch.

Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background – Vincent van Gogh

What does Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background show?

The painting shows an olive grove at the foot of the hills near Saint-Rémy, seen in summer daylight. A row of olive trees crosses the middle of the canvas from left to right. Their trunks are dark, thin and twisted, painted in curving blue-black lines, and their crowns are a dense mass of short green, blue-green and yellow-green strokes. Along the bottom edge a band of bright green ground swings up like a wave.

The ground under the trees is pale cream, yellow and light blue, laid on in long curving strokes, so the whole grove seems to move. Behind it rise rolling blue-green hills and then the jagged, dark blue rocks of the Alpilles, the low range of hills near Saint-Rémy. Above them the sky is a clear blue, and across the top floats a large white and pale yellow cloud, painted in thick swirling strokes.

How is Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background linked to The Starry Night?

Van Gogh painted both at Saint-Rémy in 1889, and he reported them together. In a letter to his brother Theo he wrote that he had done a landscape with olive trees and also a new study of a starry sky. MoMA presents this canvas as a daytime companion to The Starry Night, and Wikipedia calls it a complement to the night scene. Both paintings belong to MoMA in New York today.

Side by side the link is easy to see: here a white cloud rolls across the sky, there the stars spin over the village, and the hills move in the same waves. One is the day, the other the night.

What did Van Gogh want to show with this painting?

In May 1889 Van Gogh entered the asylum near Saint-Rémy at his own request and stayed there until May 1890. Outside its walls he painted the olive trees, cypresses and wheat fields around him. He returned to the olive groves again and again: Wikipedia counts at least 15 olive paintings, and notes that the ones from May and June 1889 share a blue-green colour and a cool tone, as this one does.

He did not want an exact view. In a later letter, in his words, the olive trees with the white cloud and the mountains behind were exaggerations from the point of view of arrangement, their outlines accentuated as in some old woodcuts. He wanted to get beyond what he called the photographic and silly perfection of some painters. That is why the hills swell and the trunks twist. The full background is in the Wikipedia article on Van Gogh’s olive tree series.

Where does the original hang?

The original belongs to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the same museum that holds The Starry Night. MoMA lists it as The Olive Trees, Saint Rémy, June–July 1889, oil on canvas, 72.6 x 91.4 cm, under the object number 581.1998. In the catalogue of Van Gogh’s work it is F712.

It came to the museum through the Mrs. John Hay Whitney Bequest.

Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background or another olive grove – which to choose?

Of the olive paintings in our range, this is the coolest and the most dramatic: green trees, blue rock and a white cloud. Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun, painted at Saint-Rémy in November 1889, is the warm one, with an orange ground and a large pale sun in a yellow sky. The Olive Orchard, from December 1889, shows women picking olives from a ladder among silver-green trees.

If you like the movement of the sky, The Starry Night is the night version of the same summer at Saint-Rémy, and A Wheat Field with Cypresses, also painted there in 1889, has the same rolling clouds above golden wheat and dark cypresses. Choose this painting for green and blue, the yellow-sky version for warmth.

How is our hand-painted Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background made?

The painter first sets out the line of the mountains, the row of trunks and the curves of the ground. Then come the blue sky and the white cloud in thick circling strokes, the blue rocks, the green crowns of the trees and last the dark lines of the trunks. Our oil painting reproduction is painted by hand in oil on canvas with real impasto: the paint goes on thickly, so the brushstrokes stand up from the canvas as they do in the original and catch the light.

On this painting the relief matters most in the cloud, in the crowns of the olive trees and in the long curving strokes of the ground. A print shows only a flat surface; on our painting the strokes are real.

Every painting is a hand-painted copy made for your order, so no two are quite the same. Before dispatch we photograph it, sending you the photograph to approve.

Which size for which wall?

Short answer: 80 x 60 or 90 x 70 cm above a sideboard, a desk or a bed, 120 x 90 or 150 x 105 cm above a sofa, and 180 x 135 or 205 x 164 cm for a large empty wall. The landscape format suits a living room, a dining room or a bedroom.

There are 17 sizes: 50 x 40, 60 x 40, 60 x 43, 63 x 48, 70 x 50, 70 x 53, 80 x 60, 90 x 70, 110 x 75, 120 x 90, 125 x 97, 139 x 100, 150 x 105, 150 x 118, 180 x 135, 190 x 150 and 205 x 164 cm (width x height). The original is 91.4 cm wide and 72.6 cm high; our 90 x 70 cm size is the closest to it, so the painting on your wall is almost as large as the one in New York. With so much green and blue, it sits well on a white, cream or light grey wall, and on a soft green or blue one that picks up the trees and the sky. A painting for the living room should take up about two thirds of the width of the furniture below it.

Hang it with the centre of the canvas about 150 cm above the floor, leaving 20 to 30 cm between the furniture and the bottom edge.

What if I need a custom size or a frame?

If none of the 17 sizes fits your wall, we paint it to measure. Keep the proportions close to the original, otherwise the cloud and the row of trees get squeezed or stretched. Send us the width and height you want and we will quote a price and a lead time. Every painting we make is stretched over a wooden stretcher and ready to hang.

For the moulding, use our 3D application: it shows each of our frame profiles on this subject, so you can compare gold, silver, black, white and natural wood – the application is for choosing the frame only. Seeing the painting on your own wall is our separate room placement service. A natural wood or dark frame suits the trunks and the rocks, and a white or silver frame keeps the cool blue of the sky.

How does delivery work, and what is the guarantee?

Every painting is made to order in our studio in Slovenia, so allow 15 to 45 days depending on the size you choose. We ship it stretched and protected, framed if you chose a frame, across the EU with no customs. Before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished work to approve, and we correct anything that is not right. Our returns policy applies to every order.

More famous Van Gogh paintings are in the Vincent van Gogh gallery, and there is more about the painter in our article on Vincent van Gogh. If you are giving it as a present and are not sure of the size, a wall art voucher lets the recipient choose.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the original Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background today?

In the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. The museum lists it as The Olive Trees, Saint Rémy, June–July 1889, oil on canvas, 72.6 x 91.4 cm, object number 581.1998, and it came to the collection through the Mrs. John Hay Whitney Bequest. The Starry Night, painted at Saint-Rémy in the same summer, belongs to the same museum.

When did Van Gogh paint Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background in 1889?

In the summer of 1889, at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in the south of France. MoMA dates it June–July 1889, and Wikipedia gives June 1889. Van Gogh was then living in the asylum near the town, which he had entered at his own request in May 1889, and he painted the olive groves and hills just outside its walls.

What are the mountains in Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background?

They are the Alpilles, the low range of rocky hills near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, which gives the painting its title. Van Gogh painted their jagged peaks in dark blue behind rolling green hills. MoMA describes the twisting olive trees as capped by the rolling, dwindling hillocks of the Alpilles. Van Gogh himself simply called them the mountains behind.

Is Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background a companion to The Starry Night?

Yes. Van Gogh painted both at Saint-Rémy in 1889 and wrote to Theo that he had done a landscape with olive trees and also a new study of a starry sky. MoMA presents this canvas as the daytime companion to The Starry Night, and both now belong to MoMA in New York. The white cloud here answers the swirling night sky there.

What did Van Gogh say about Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background?

He admitted that it was not a literal view. In his words, the olive trees with the white cloud and the mountains behind were exaggerations from the point of view of arrangement, their outlines accentuated as in some old woodcuts. He wanted to go beyond what he called the photographic and silly perfection of some painters, which explains the swelling hills and the curling cloud.

How big is the original Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background?

The original is 72.6 cm high and 91.4 cm wide, a landscape format that suits a wall above a sofa, a sideboard or a dining table. Our 90 x 70 cm size is the closest to it, and there are smaller and larger sizes from 50 x 40 up to 205 x 164 cm, as well as custom sizes painted to measure.

Is Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background a good gift?

It is a fresh, lively gift that suits many homes: a living room with green or blue tones, a study, a house in the country, or someone who has walked among the olive groves and hills of Provence. As a canvas painting full of movement, it also works as a present for a new home, and a voucher lets the recipient choose the size.

Does your Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background have the raised brushstrokes of the original?

Yes. We paint our copy in impasto: the paint goes on thickly, so the brushstrokes stand up from the canvas as on Van Gogh’s original. You see it best in the white cloud, the crowns of the olive trees and the long curving strokes of the ground, where the relief catches the light. A print cannot have this relief, because its surface is flat.

• Subject: twisted olive trees in front of the rocky Alpilles near Saint-Rémy, under a blue sky with a large white cloud.
• Original: June–July 1889, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, 72.6 x 91.4 cm, MoMA, New York.
• Ours: a Van Gogh reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas, in 17 sizes from 50 x 40 to 205 x 164 cm or made to measure.
• Worth knowing: you receive a photograph of the finished work for approval before dispatch.