Vincent van Gogh – The Poet’s Garden

The Poet’s Garden is the corner of the public garden in Arles that Vincent van Gogh painted in September 1888: a green lawn dotted with small flowers, a weeping tree with hanging branches on the right, round bushes and a tall dark conifer on the left, trees in autumn orange, gold and green, and a lemon-yellow sky above. The original, oil on canvas, measures 73 x 92.1 cm and belongs to the Art Institute of Chicago. We paint it by hand in oil on canvas, in 17 sizes from 50 x 40 to 190 x 151 cm or to your own measurements, and send you a photograph of the finished painting for approval before dispatch.

The Poet’s Garden – Vincent van Gogh

What does The Poet’s Garden show?

Most of the canvas is lawn. It fills the lower half in short green strokes, from yellow-green to deep blue-green, dotted with tiny white and pale yellow flowers. There is no path and no figure: you look straight into a quiet corner of a park.

On the right stands a weeping tree whose long green branches hang almost to the grass around a thin red-brown trunk. On the left are a large round bush and, at the very edge, a tall dark conifer. Between them, at the back, rises a wall of trees in orange, gold, yellow and green, with a bush of pale pink and white blossoms in the middle. Above the treetops a narrow strip of yellow-green sky closes the scene.

How did Van Gogh describe The Poet’s Garden in his letters?

He described it to his brother Theo in a letter dated 16 September 1888, as the first painting of that week. He called it a no. 30 canvas of a corner of a garden with a weeping tree, grass, round-trimmed cedar bushes and an oleander bush. Theo already had a smaller study of the same corner; this time, Van Gogh wrote, the canvas was larger, there was a lemon-coloured sky above it all, and the colours had the richness and intensities of autumn.

He added that it was done in much heavier impasto, plain and thick. In the same letter he said he would move into the house the next day. This was the Yellow House in Arles, which he wanted to turn, through its decoration, into an artist’s house.

What does The Poet’s Garden mean?

On 3 October 1888 Van Gogh told Paul Gauguin, who was coming to stay with him in Arles, that he had made a decoration especially for the room where Gauguin would stay: the garden of a poet. In his letter to Gauguin of 3 October 1888 he explains that the unremarkable public garden had plants and bushes that made one dream of landscapes with Botticelli, Giotto, Petrarch, Dante and Boccaccio in them. He wanted to paint it so that one would think both of the old poet of the place, or rather of Avignon, Petrarch, and of its new poet, Paul Gauguin.

According to the editors of the letters, the decoration called the poet’s garden at first consisted of this canvas and another view of the park that is now unknown. Van Gogh saw the two as companion pieces and gave them the title the poet’s garden. Two more paintings joined them later, The public garden with a couple strolling and Row of cypresses with a couple strolling. So the title belongs to a whole group, and the canvas in Chicago is the one he described to Theo on 16 September.

Who owns the original, and how did it reach the museum?

The original belongs to the Art Institute of Chicago, which lists it as The Poet’s Garden, 1888, oil on canvas, 73 x 92.1 cm, in the Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection, under the reference number 1933.433.

After the painter’s death it belonged to his sister-in-law Johanna van Gogh-Bonger. It then passed through art galleries in Rotterdam and The Hague, and by 1925 it belonged to M. Gieseler in The Hague. In October 1925 it was sold at auction by A. Mak in Amsterdam as lot 33. From the Howard Young Galleries in New York it went to Annie Swan Coburn, Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn, of Chicago, who owned it by 1928 at the latest. She died in 1932 and left it to the Art Institute, which received it in 1933.

The Poet’s Garden or another Van Gogh – which should you choose?

Its closest companions in our range come from Arles. The Yellow House shows the house in Arles for whose guest room this garden was painted. Starry Night over the Rhône is a view of the river at Arles under a sky full of stars, and Les Alyscamps shows an avenue in Arles. Cypresses is built around tall, dark cypress trees.

Choose this garden for a calm green landscape with no buildings and no figures, Starry Night over the Rhône for a night scene, Les Alyscamps for a view along an avenue and The Yellow House for a town scene.

How is our hand-painted version of The Poet’s Garden made?

The painter first sketches the line of the lawn, the weeping tree, the round bush, the conifer and the row of trees at the back, and checks the proportions against the original. Then comes the yellow-green sky, after it the autumn trees in orange, gold and green, then the dark conifer and the round bushes, then the weeping tree, and last the lawn with its short strokes and the small flowers dotted over it. Our oil painting reproduction is painted by hand 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 our version the relief shows most in the short strokes of the lawn, in the hanging branches of the weeping tree and in the dabs of colour in the autumn trees. A print is completely flat; on our painting every brushstroke stands out in real paint.

Every painting is a hand-painted copy made for your order, so no two are quite the same.

Which size for which wall?

Short answer: 50 x 40 or 70 x 55 cm for a narrow wall in a hallway or beside a door, 92 x 73 or 100 x 80 cm above a chest of drawers or a bed, and 150 x 120 or 160 x 127 cm above a sofa or on a large wall.

There are 17 sizes: 50 x 40, 60 x 50, 70 x 55, 80 x 60, 85 x 67, 92 x 73, 100 x 80, 105 x 85, 110 x 90, 120 x 100, 130 x 102, 140 x 105, 150 x 120, 160 x 127, 170 x 134, 180 x 142 and 190 x 151 cm (width x height). The original is 92.1 cm wide and 73 cm high, so our 92 x 73 cm size matches it almost exactly, and 100 x 80, 150 x 120 and 190 x 151 cm keep its proportions. The greens and the autumn gold look best on a white, cream or light grey wall and sit well with natural wood. A painting for the living room should cover 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. Above a sofa, a bed or a sideboard, leave 20 to 30 cm between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the canvas.

What if I need a custom size or a frame?

If none of the 17 sizes fits your wall, we paint it to measure in any width and height you need. Send us the width and height you want and we will quote you a price and a delivery time. Every painting we make is mounted on a wooden stretcher, ready to hang.

Our 3D app shows each of our frame profiles on this painting, so you can compare gold, silver, black, white and natural wood. The app is for choosing the frame only. To see the painting on your own wall, use our separate room placement service. A gold frame picks up the autumn trees and the lemon-yellow sky, while a natural wood or white one keeps the green lawn light and fresh.

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 on its stretcher, carefully packed (and framed, if you chose a frame), across the EU with no customs duty. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished painting to approve. Our returns policy applies to every order.

You will find more of Van Gogh’s famous works among all our Vincent van Gogh paintings, and more about the painter in our article on Vincent van Gogh. If it is a present and you are not sure of the size, a wall art voucher lets the recipient choose.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the original of The Poet’s Garden today?

In the Art Institute of Chicago. The museum lists it as oil on canvas, painted in 1888, in the Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection, under the reference number 1933.433. It came to the museum in 1933 as the bequest of Annie Swan Coburn of Chicago.

When and where did Van Gogh paint The Poet’s Garden?

In September 1888, in the public garden of Arles in the south of France. In a letter to his brother Theo dated 16 September 1888 he named it as the first painting of that week, and wrote that he would move into the Yellow House the next day, the house where he was preparing a room for Paul Gauguin.

Which plants did Van Gogh paint in The Poet’s Garden?

In his own words, a weeping tree, grass, round-trimmed cedar bushes and an oleander bush, with a lemon-coloured sky above them. In the painting the weeping tree stands on the right, a round bush and a tall dark conifer on the left, and a row of trees in autumn orange, gold and green closes the lawn at the back.

Who is the poet in The Poet’s Garden?

In the same letter Van Gogh says he wanted the garden to make one think of two poets: Petrarch, the old poet of the place, or rather of Avignon, and Paul Gauguin as its new poet. The plants of the park, he wrote, also made him think of Dante and Boccaccio.

Was The Poet’s Garden painted for Gauguin’s room?

Yes. Van Gogh wrote to Gauguin that he had made a decoration especially for the room where Gauguin would stay in the Yellow House in Arles, and called it the garden of a poet. He added that while preparing Gauguin’s studio he had thought of him with very deep feeling.

Is The Poet’s Garden one painting or a series?

Both. Van Gogh gave the title to a group of paintings of the same public garden. Besides the canvas in Chicago, the group included a companion view of the park that is now unknown and two later paintings, The public garden with a couple strolling and Row of cypresses with a couple strolling, each also called the poet’s garden.

How big is the original of The Poet’s Garden?

73 cm high and 92.1 cm wide, according to the Art Institute of Chicago, a landscape format of medium size. Van Gogh himself called it a no. 30 canvas, using the French standard sizes. Our 92 x 73 cm size is almost exactly the size of the original. There are 17 sizes up to 190 x 151 cm, and we also paint it to measure in any proportions.

Which size of The Poet’s Garden suits a living room?

Above a sofa, choose 150 x 120 or 160 x 127 cm, so that the canvas painting covers a good part of the width of the sofa and the green lawn reads clearly from across the room. On a narrower wall or above a sideboard, 92 x 73 or 100 x 80 cm works well. For a very large wall, choose our largest size, 190 x 151 cm.

Does your copy of The Poet’s Garden have the raised brushstrokes of the original?

Yes. We paint our garden in impasto: the paint goes on thickly, so the brushstrokes stand up from the canvas as on Van Gogh’s original, which he himself described as done in much heavier impasto, plain and thick. You see it best in the short strokes of the lawn and the hanging branches of the weeping tree, where the relief catches the light.

• Subject: a corner of the public garden in Arles: a green lawn with small flowers, a weeping tree, round bushes, a dark conifer and autumn trees under a lemon-yellow sky.
• Original: September 1888, Arles, oil on canvas, 73 x 92.1 cm, Art Institute of Chicago.
• Ours: a Van Gogh reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas, in 17 sizes from 50 x 40 to 190 x 151 cm or made to measure.
• Worth knowing: each painting is made to order, so allow 15 to 45 days, and our 3D app lets you try every frame on this painting before you order.