In honor of what would be Vincent van Gogh’s 170th birthday, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is presenting a deep dive into the artist’s paintings of towering cypress trees. The tall shrubs became a common subject in the artist’s paintings during the time he spent in the South of France.
The exhibition, titled Van Gogh’s Cypresses, will feature 40 different works the impressionist created during his stay in a mental hospital in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France.
“It has always been thought that he discovered the cypresses after his stay at the asylum, that this is what fueled his imagination, and that he had more or less ignored the most eye-catching motif in Provence before he got there,” said Susan Alyson Stein, the Met’s curator of 19th-century European painting, who is organizing the exhibition. “That isn’t the case. The show is not only the first to focus on the motif, but it also gives an unprecedented look at the back story behind these paintings that have long captivated our attention.”
Van Gogh’s infamous Starry Night hasn’t traveled from the Museum of Modern Art in 13 years and will be reunited with “Wheat Field With Cypresses” for the first time since 1901!
The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation made the exhibition possible and will show from May 22nd – August 27th, 2023. For more information, visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.