Trees and Undergrowth is the subject of paintings that Vincent van Gogh made in Paris, Saint-Rémy and Auvers, from 1887 through 1890. Van Gogh made several paintings of undergrowth, a genre called "sous-bois" brought into prominence by artists of the Barbizon School and Impressionists. The works from this series successfully use shades of color and light in the forest or garden interior paintings. Van Gogh selected one of his Saint-Rémy paintings, Ivy (F609) for the Brussels Les XX exhibition in 1890.
The woodland scene genre, or "sous-bois" in French for undergrowth, was popular with artists from the Barbizon School and Impressionists.[1]
Rather than painting landscapes from afar like traditional painters, 19th century rural painters climbed or walked into forested areas for a close view of wooded scenes. Paintings of the sous-bois, evoking the trees and grassy undergrowth, were often made vertically on canvas, as opposed to horizontal views of sweeping landscapes. In a sous-bois, the sky is barely visible, just a glimpse of sky sometimes penetrating the branches. This type of composition was rare before the 19th century when artists of the Barbizon School made paintings of forested areas in the Fontainebleau region of France. Close to the subject of the painting, artists painting sous-bois capture their experience in the forested scene. In German, the painting of interior forests was called Waldinneres, meaning enclosed woodland space.
Copyright Statement:
All the reproduction of any forms about this work unauthorized by Singing Palette including images, texts and so on will be deemed to be violating the Copyright Laws. To cite this webpage, please link back here.