Undergrowth with Two Figures

Undergrowth with Two Figures is an oil on canvas by Vincent van Gogh, painted in June 1890 at Auvers-sur-Oise in France. It shows a couple walking through the flowering undergrowth of a poplar wood. The painting belongs to the Cincinnati Art Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Where to see it

Undergrowth with Two Figures is in the collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Works on display can be rotated, lent or temporarily removed, so check the museum's official website for current display status, opening hours and ticketing before you visit.

What to look for in person

A wide, horizontal canvas

Before you look at any detail, notice the shape. The canvas measures 49.5 by 99.7 cm, so it is about twice as wide as it is tall. This stretched format turns the woodland into a long band that you read from side to side rather than as a single view into depth. Step back far enough to take in the full width, then walk slowly along it. The proportions change how the forest feels: less a deep tunnel of trees, more a screen of trunks running across your field of vision.

The rhythm of the poplar trunks

The subject is the undergrowth of a poplar wood, and the tree trunks give the picture its structure. Look at how they rise as repeated vertical accents across the horizontal canvas, setting up a rhythm a little like fence posts or columns. Then compare the trunks with the ground below them, where the flowering undergrowth fills the lower part of the scene. Up close, look at how Van Gogh builds these areas with visible strokes of oil paint; from a distance, notice how the strokes merge into trunks, foliage and blossom.

Finding the two figures

The title promises two figures, but they are part of the woodland rather than its centre of attention. Take a moment to locate the couple walking among the trees, and notice their scale compared with the trunks around them. Their presence turns a study of trees and flowers into a scene with a human element, a pair moving through the landscape. Ask yourself how the painting would read without them, and how they affect the way your eye travels across the canvas from one side to the other.

About the painting

Vincent van Gogh painted Undergrowth with Two Figures in June 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, a village north-west of Paris where he spent the last period of his life. The work is in oil on canvas and measures 49.5 by 99.7 cm. It belongs to a group of pictures from his time in Auvers in which he looked closely at the surrounding countryside: fields, gardens and woodland.

Here the subject is a poplar wood in flower. Rather than painting a broad, open view, Van Gogh places the viewer among the trees, with the trunks and undergrowth filling much of the canvas. A couple walks through the wood, giving the scene a quiet human presence without making the figures the main focus. The elongated horizontal format emphasises the spread of the woodland and the repetition of the trunks across the picture.

The painting entered the Cincinnati Art Museum through a bequest from Mary E. Johnston in 1967, and it remains in the museum's collection in Cincinnati, Ohio. For visitors, it offers a chance to see one of Van Gogh's Auvers landscapes in the United States and to study his handling of paint at close range.

When you visit, give yourself time to look at the painting both from a distance, to grasp its overall rhythm and shape, and from closer up, to follow individual brushstrokes. Because displays can change, confirm on the museum's official website that the painting is on view before planning your trip.

Key facts

Artist	Vincent van Gogh
Date	1890
Size	49.5 × 99.7 cm
Medium	oil paint, canvas
Collection	Cincinnati Art Museum

How to visit: Cincinnati Art Museum

Cincinnati, United States · Museum guide

Opening hours	Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun 11:00–17:00 Thu 11:00–20:00 Sat–Sun 10:00–11:00 (members only)
Closed	Closed on Mondays, and on Thursday 26 November and Friday 25 December. Open on 24 December and 31 December (closing at 17:00) and on 1 January.
Admission	General admission free “The Art of Charley Harper: Creatures Wild and Tame” (special exhibition) free for members; ticketed for non-members (price not published) “Nancy Rexroth: Secrets of My Power” (exhibition) free
Free entry	General admission is free for everyone every day. Members enter the ticketed Charley Harper exhibition free. Parking is free.
Booking	No reservation is required.

Galleries 224–229 are temporarily closed. On Friday 13 November, most of the first floor, the Terrace Cafe and the REC will be closed, and the Museum Shop will close at 15:00.

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Hours and prices can change. Please check the official website before you go. (Checked on: 2026-11-12)