Art Institute of Chicago

Avenue of Pollard Birches and Poplars

Vincent van GoghLinkedCulture matchlcp-8a85462d2b98

Date: March 1884
Medium: Reed pen and iron-gall ink on tan laid paper
Culture: Netherlands
Department: Prints and Drawings
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID: 202382

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

Vincent van Gogh seems to have been inspired to make this melancholy drawing after reading the poem “Tristement” (sadly) by the French writer François Coppee, who was known as the “poet of the humble.” The poem describes a mourning widow proceeding along “a very long lane of giant, halfdenuded plane trees.” Time has enhanced the drawing’s autumnal mood. The iron-gall ink that Van Gogh used, once black, has altered to a dark brown and imparted a golden tone to the paper, the pen lines bleeding so that close hatchings merge and the contrast between light and dark is now muted.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray
Provenance: A.G.A. van Rappard, Utrecht; Mrs. Spanjaard-Keller, the Hague; W.B. Tholen, the Hague; D'Audretsch Art Gallery, the Hague, 1940. F.C. d'Audretsch, Wassenaar/New York. Mrs. M. Frank, New York, acquired 1970; by descent; sold, Christie's, New York, Nov. 15, 1989, lot 8; private collection, France; sold, Christie's, New York, Nov. 18, 1998, lot 2, to Richard and Mary L. Gray and the Gray Collection Trust, Chicago (promised to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2018); given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2022.