Blue Cypress

The Cypress series is in dialogue with Van Gogh's thoughts and reflections on the life of a painter and the essence of his work. In this narrow vertical painting stands a dark blue-black cypress, with fine lines in greenish pale blue stretching along its length and binding it to a slender trunk. It grows from a dark mound and rises to a sharp tip, surrounded by a burning red field dotted with rows of yellowish-olive spots, rhythmic like a texture or a pulse. The red opens around the cypress like a curtain, and the dark, quiet figure stands before it, almost like an inverted flame.