Trees and Undergrowth, 1887
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Oil on Canvas, 46.5 X 55.5 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
(Vincent van Gogh Stichting)
F 309

The play of the sunlight falling through the foliage onto the forest floor gave Van Gogh an opportunity to experiment with innumerable variations of green. Covering the canvas is a pattern of green flecks, highlighted with white, yellow and even red. And yet there is some depth; a line of yellow across the center ground suggests light shining into a clearing located in the middle distance.

Such woodland scenes were popular with the painters of the School of Barbizon and the Impressionists. In French there is even a name for the genre, derived from the word for undergrowth – sousbois