Van Gogh, Vincent (1853-1890)
L’Escalier d’Auvers (Stairway at Auvers)
1890
Oil on canvas, 50 × 70.5 cm
Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis
The expressive, swirling lines of the foreground road move backward to the center of the composition and join the base of a stairway on which an elderly man with a stick descends. Chestnut trees are in flower to the right and left, while two pair of women walk along the road. Vincent van Gogh’s work is of a compact, almost claustrophobic density and the sky is barely seen. In one of his final letters, Van Gogh described Auvers as “of a grave beauty, the real countryside, characteristic and picturesque.” (SLAM)