This drawing was created as a partner to another drawing entitled Sorrow, a nude study of a pregnant woman. Van Gogh explains his intentions for the drawing in a letter to his brother, Theo. “I’ve tried to imbue the landscape with the same sentiment as the figure. Frantically and fervently rooting itself, as it were, in the earth, and yet being half torn up by the storm. I wanted to express something of life’s struggle, both in that white, slender female figure and in those gnarled black roots with their knots.”

While largely self-taught as a painter, Van Gogh did receive formal instruction from his cousin-in-law, the painter Anton Mauve, in November and December 1881. Van Gogh having never worked with oils, Mauve had him start by painting still lifes. Here, a straw hat is arrayed with such objects as ceramic pottery, a matchbox, and a piece of white fabric. One can sense the objects’ touch, warmth, and weight. The expression is still somewhat uneven, yet Van Gogh’s skill in capturing each object’s essence is testimony to his unrelenting effort.

In February 1886, Van Gogh moved to Paris. Acutely aware that his style and colors were outdated, he experimented with various expressive techniques. In this painting, he employs the Post-Impressionist pointillist technique to achieve a bright, colorful canvas. Judging from the top hat hung on the wall and white tablecloths with glasses set upside down, it appears to be a restaurant frequented by the bourgeoisie. Though the restaurant’s identity is unknown, the Van Gogh painting on the wall suggests it to be one whose owner was friendly with Van Gogh.

A sower and immense radiating sun hold our eye. In Arles, Van Gogh felt deeply moved by the workings of nature—buds emerging from seeds, flowers from buds, fruit from flowers, and the renewal of the cycle with seeds. The sun, whose eternal light and energy support the cycles of life, acquired special meaning for him. The Sower was by inspired by a Jean Francois Millet work Van Gogh had loved since his early painting days. Using color techniques learned in Paris, he awakens sharp contrasts among the purple fields, the sky, and the yellow grain in a powerful painting.

In May 1889, Van Gogh admitted himself to an asylum in Saint-Rémy. Though confined to the grounds due to his condition, he continued to paint by copying painting reproductions and works of his own. This work he painted based on a lithograph he produced in The Hague in 1882. In this period of illness, Van Gogh perhaps saw himself in this sorrowing man clasping his head in his hands. Helene Kröller-Müller, who collected most of the pieces in this exhibition, received this work, Sorrowing Old Man (‘At Eternity’s Gate’), from husband Anton as a gift on their 25th wedding anniversary.

In Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh came to focus on cypress trees as a motif. Repeatedly, he painted cypresses rising above fields of golden grain under the brilliant blue skies of Southern France. Fascinated by the cypress’s dark green tone amid the bright colors of the landscape, he yet mentions his struggle to express it on canvas, several times in a letter. This work he likely painted just before leaving Saint-Rémy near the end of his stay in Southern France. The cypress, positioned centrally under a sky with star and moon, is depicted in a subdued tone achieved by layering strokes of shades of green. It can be considered a culmination of his efforts in Provence.