The Cypresses by Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) will rise from May 22 to August 27, 2023 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. For the first time, the “Van Gogh’s Cypresses” exhibition will bring together 40 iconic paintings, including “Wheat Field with Cypresses” and “The Starry Night”, to offer an unprecedented perspective on the Dutch painter’s fascination with trees “as calls”.
The exhibition will focus on the artist’s unique vision of towering trees, among the most famous in art history, offering, the Met explains in a statement, “an unprecedented perspective on a motif that is virtually synonymous with its extreme original expressive force».
An extraordinary range of works will illuminate the extent of Van Gogh’s fascination with the evergreen trees of Provence that successively ignited and fueled his imagination over the course of two years living in the south of France: from the first sighting of the trees.” tall and dark.” to Arles to the realization of all the evocative potential of him (“as I see them”) in the Saint-Rémy asylum.
The exhibition will feature loans from around 30 public and private collections. Exhibition highlights include The Met’s own “The Starry Sky”, London’s National Gallery’s “Wheatfield with Cypresses” and Kröller’s “Night Path in Provence” (aka “Road with Cypresses and Starry Sky”) – Müller Museum in Otterlo, as well as an important selection from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
A dream come true
The itinerary of the exhibition is organized chronologically. Thematic groupings and related pairs of paintings and drawings trace the artist’s progressive exploration of a motif that has held his interest for two years. “The exhibit is a dream come true,” said Max Hollein, director of the Met. “Marking the 170th anniversary of Van Gogh’s birth, this highly focused exhibit explores his distinctive vision of towering cypress trees. A one-of-a-kind collection, it presents both an overview and an intimate look at his creative process, challenging prevailing notions with fresh ideas.” Combining seminal paintings with precious drawings and illustrated letters, many of which are rarely on loan or on display together, this thematic exhibition “will offer the extraordinary opportunity to appreciate again some of Van Gogh’s most famous works in a context that will reveal for the first time the history of his invention.” Curator Susan Alyson Stein added: “To a degree that has not been recognized, Van Gogh brought his characteristic ambition, determination and a rare degree of thought and reconsideration to shape the cypresses in works that are astonishing in their originality and in their continuity of vision”. .
