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Road with Cypress and Star

Vincent van Gogh, 1890

Road with Cypress and Star is an 1890 oil painting by Vincent van Gogh, held by the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, the Netherlands. Made in May 1890, it was the last painting he completed in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. A dark cypress rises between a star and a crescent moon above a road where travellers pass at night.

Where to see it

The painting belongs to the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, the Netherlands. Works in a collection are not always on view, as they may be rotated, conserved or lent elsewhere, so check the Kröller-Müller Museum's official website for current display status, opening hours and ticket information before you plan your visit.

What to look for in person

The cypress between star and moon

The tall, dark cypress fills the centre of the picture and runs past the top edge of the canvas, so the tree never fully ends within the frame. To its left, look for a faint evening star; to its right, a thin crescent moon. In front of the painting, notice how the tree splits the sky into two halves, each with its own source of light, and how its dark, upward-reaching form stands against the paler, moving sky around it.

Travellers on the road

Lower in the picture, a road winds through the fields. Look for two people walking along it and a horse-drawn cart carrying a small group of passengers. In the distance at the right, a house stands at the edge of a grove of cypresses, while mountains run along the horizon beneath low clouds. These details are easy to miss from across the room. Stepping closer shows how an ordinary scene of people on their way is set beneath an intense night sky.

Brushwork you can follow

Van Gogh's brushstrokes here are long and clearly visible. On the road they follow its curves, giving the ground a sense of movement, while in the sky they curl into circular halos around the star and the moon. Try following a single stroke with your eye from where it starts to where it stops. From a few steps back, the marks merge into rhythmic patterns across the surface; up close, the direction of each stroke becomes something to study in its own right.

About the painting

Van Gogh painted Road with Cypress and Star in oil on canvas in May 1890, and it was the last painting he made in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in the south of France. The canvas measures 92 by 73 centimetres. The work is also known in English as Country Road in Provence by Night, and its Dutch title is Cypres bij sterrennacht.

The idea behind the picture had been with him for some time. Since his stay in Arles in 1888, Van Gogh had wanted to paint cypress trees seen at night, and this painting brings that plan to the canvas. In June 1890, after he had moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, he wrote to Paul Gauguin about the work, comparing its themes to those of Gauguin's Christ in the Garden of Olives. In that letter he connected the subject to suffering and to perseverance, as in Gauguin's painting.

Later writers have offered their own readings. The scholar Kathleen Powers Erickson argued that the painting expresses Van Gogh's sense that his death was near, even more strongly than The Starry Night, and she described the central cypress as an obelisk of death. Naomi Maurer's analysis draws attention to the winding road, the travellers, the carriage and a small inn within the scene, details that ground the night sky in everyday life. These are interpretations rather than settled fact, but they can give visitors a useful way into the picture.

Today the painting belongs to the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, the Netherlands.

Key facts

More by Vincent van Gogh

• Café Terrace at Night — Kröller-Müller Museum
• White House at Night
• The siesta (after Millet) — Musée d'Orsay
• The Church at Auvers — Musée d'Orsay
• Portrait of Père Tanguy
• Starry Night Over the Rhône — Musée d'Orsay
• The Potato Eaters — Van Gogh Museum
• The Red Vineyard
• The Yellow House — Van Gogh Museum
• Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin — Van Gogh Museum
• Irises — J. Paul Getty Museum
• Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing, The — Kröller-Müller Museum

Sources

• Wikidata Q5930190
• Wikipedia (en) (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• Wikipedia (ja) (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• Wikipedia (it) (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• www.krollermuller.nl
• krollermuller.nl
• a.krollermuller.nl