Women Picking Olives is one of Vincent Van Gogh paintings in 1889 as a Dutch post-impressionist painter. He also became one of the most influential figures in the history of art in the West.
In more than a decade, he created approximately 2,100 works of art covering still life, landscapes, portraits and self-portraits. Most of his paintings are characterized by bold, dramatic colors and impulsive and expressive brushstrokes.
Then, you may wonder about Women Picking Olives as one of the most interesting arts. Well, to know more the meaning behind this painting, let’s see our post below!
How Was Women Picking Olives Painting Created?
In April 1889, Vincent Van Gogh booked himself into the Asylum Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Rémy, in Southern France. Previously was a period of turmoil for him.
So in April of that year, he broke up and sought refuge under the tutelage of Dr Félix Rey. This turmoil occurred as a result of his quite vicious attack on his own friend Paul Gauguin. This history is also inseparable from the legendary act of self-injury. Naturally, the dream of building an artist colony in the Yellow House in Arles was shattered.
While in the hospital, his structure and safety would have led him to eventually produce nearly 150 paintings over the next 12 months. At first, he painted on adjoining cells and inside walls. In the end, however, he was allowed to paint in the countryside.
Van Gogh was finally fascinated by the wrinkled olive trees that had begun to bear fruit and were ready to be harvested. Then, he painted this grove of olive trees on 18 separate occasions in the following six months. He looked deeply at the olive tree trunk which was beginning to wrinkle. The olive trees can be described as strong and everlasting trees which seem to echo the sufferings of Christ.
He ended up painting the olive trees as an illustration and a way of conveying the implicit message of the olive tree which began to wrinkle. After painting olive trees, he became interested in painting women picking olives as a noble work in a garden shining with energy.
Well, this is where it started why women picking olives painting was created by Vincent Van Gogh. From his explorations in the olive grove, he totally produced three versions of the same subject, three women using a ladder to pick taller berries, perhaps for their own use.
For the first version, he wrote the artistic words that are “colored in a more somber tone” when winter came and the last fruits gathered. For the second version, the painting is made in a studio in a “top secret range of colors”. While, for the third version, he painted for his mother and sister, he hopes, “becomes a little to your liking” which can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
What Did Women Picking Olives Painting Mean?
Without explicitly, the Women Picking Olives paint showed Christ among the olive trees. As the main theme of his painting, Van Gogh imparts the message of the Garden of Gethsemane that salvation is available to those who accept God’s will. After all, Van Gogh seemed to be injecting vibrating energy to energize the entire surface.
He also uses nuanced colors to present a symbol in amplifying the divine taste and the cycle of life is also a catalyst for Olive Grove with two olive pickers. Of course, this painting is a more dynamic composition depicting a man and a woman locked into the shadows under the irradiated sky.
As a complement to meaning, yellow and blue are certainly described as a combination of colors that create opposite harmonies. Then, draw a woman in the foreground in the same black and thick lines depicting wrinkled trees while the man blends in with the blue shadows.
The women picking the olives are depicted as tense looking up. Of course, this can be symbolized as a hope of spiritual salvation promised in the bright yellow and orange signs that adorn the tree line.
The point is, Vincent Van Gogh walked into a wheat field and shot himself in the stomach in the middle of summer after 6 months of creating the painting. Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings as an illustration of his dreams that have not yet been realized.
Who Was Vincent Van Gogh?
Vincent ‘Willem’ van Gogh is the most famous Dutch painter in post-Impressionist history. Ironically, his name and works only started to be recognized and recognized internationally after he died. A number of art observers consider Van Gogh’s paintings to have transcended their time.
Van Gogh has created 2,100 works of art, including 860 oil paintings. Unlucky, during his lifetime, only one of his paintings was sold. Even though today, after his death, almost all of Van Gogh’s works have been sold well. A number of his works are even listed as the most expensive paintings in the world.
Vincent Van Gogh was born in Zundert, The Netherlands, on March 30, 1853, and he decided to become a painter in 1881 after returning from Borinage, Belgium. The only person who faithfully supports Van Gogh’s decision in total is Theo van Gogh, his favorite younger brother.
During his time as a painter, Van Gogh moved around. He had painted various objects in several cities in the Netherlands and France. However, while living in Arles, France, Van Gogh suffered from an acute mental illness.
Vincent Van Gogh died at the age of 37 on July 28, 1890 in Auvers – sur-Oise, France. After Van Gogh died, his younger brother Theo’s health gradually deteriorated. Theo later fell ill, allegedly because he felt terrible loss at the death of Van Gogh.
Six months after Van Gogh died, Theo finally died in Utrecht, The Netherlands, on January 25, 1891. The figures of the siblings who are very close and love each other are then immortalized in two statues of their figures that were built in Zundert, the birthplace of both of them. Van Gogh’s phenomenal life story is also immortalized in a biographical novel by Irving Stone.