Vincent Van Gogh painted at least 18 paintings of Olive Trees mostly in Saint-Remy during his stay at the asylum in May 1889 through 1890. One painting, "Olive Trees in a Mountainous Landscape", was a compliment to "The Starry Night". The National Gallery of Art summarizes this series: "In the olive trees- in the expressive power of their ancient and gnarled forms - Van Gogh found a manifestation the spiritual force he believed resided in all of nature. His brushstrokes make the soil and even the sky seem alive with the same rustling motion as the leaves, stirred to a shimmer by the Mediterranean wind. These strong individual dashed do not seem painted so much as drawn onto the canvas with a heavily loaded brush. The energy in their continuous rhythm communicates to us, in an almost physical way, the living force that Van Gogh found within the trees themselves, the very spiritual force that he believed had shaped them." Dimensions are 10" x 14".Heavy paper. A Bruce McGaw Graphics Publication. 1999 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Mrs John Hay Whitney Bequest 34051. Vincent Van Gogh. The Olive Trees, 1889 Oil on canvas 28 5/8 x 36". PF 700 Printed in the USA