Oliveraie, Saint-Rémy

In the autumn of 1889 Van Gogh was a voluntary patient at the asylum of Saint-Paul outside Saint-Remy, and his friend the painter Emile Bernard sent him photographs of new work, biblical scenes including Christ praying in the garden of olives. Van Gogh wrote back angrily. He told Bernard to stop inventing holy scenes out of his head, and said that he had spent the month in the olive groves themselves instead. He painted about 15 of them that year, in every light he could get. This canvas is one of the best preserved of the whole group. In most of the others the red pigment he mixed into his violets and pinks has faded badly over the last century, so the colour you see in Gothenburg is far closer to what actually left his easel.