FAQ
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890). Cypresses, June 20–25, 1889. Reed pen, pen, and ink, graphite on wove paper, 24 1/2 x 18 1/2 in. (62.2 x 47.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L Babbott Fund and the A. Augustus Healy Fund, 38.123
Vincent van Gogh's rich correspondence with his brother Theo permits a rare insight into the conception and development of his works. Writing on the subject of cypresses, the focus of a number of works, van Gogh expressed his intense feelings about these majestic trees: "The cypresses are always occupying my thoughts; I should like to make something of them, because it astonishes me that they have not been done as I see them. It is as beautiful in lines and proportions as an Egyptian obelisk, and the green is of so distinguished a quality. It is a splash of black in a sunny landscape, but is one of the most interesting black notes, and the most difficult to hit off exactly that I can imagine."
The monumentality and free style of this drawing, made after a painting of the same subject (now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), place it among the artist's finest works on paper.
Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum