Country Road in Provence by Night (Road with Cypress and Star)
Painted in May 1890, Country Road in Provence by Night (also known as Road with Cypress and Star) is one of Van Gogh’s final Saint-Rémy works. The composition shows a winding path beneath a luminous night sky, dominated by a towering cypress—Van Gogh’s emblem of Provence. Two travelers walk toward a crescent moon and evening star, symbols of transition and renewal. Through swirling, rhythmic brushstrokes and a vivid palette of blues, greens, and yellows, Van Gogh transforms the Provençal landscape into a meditation on nature, mortality, and infinity. Oil on canvas, 90.6 × 72 cm, Post-Impressionism. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo.
Ratings / Reviews
Additional information
| Dimensions | Original: 90.6 cm x 72 cm, Small: 36.2 cm x 28.8 cm, Medium: 54.4 cm x 43.2 cm, Large: 72.5 cm x 57.6 cm |
|---|
Price range: $276.00 through $477.00
Country Road in Provence by Night (Road with Cypress and Star), painted in May 1890, stands among the final works Vincent van Gogh completed during his stay at the asylum of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. This oil on canvas, now in the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, encapsulates many of the artist’s recurring preoccupations in Provence—night skies, rural paths, and above all, the cypress tree, which Van Gogh described as “beautiful as regards lines and proportions, like an Egyptian obelisk.”
The scene is not a faithful transcription of a single place but a poetic composition drawn from Van Gogh’s impressions of the Provençal landscape. A winding road, flanked by tall cypresses, extends beneath a swirling night sky. On either side of the central tree, a pale crescent moon and a faint evening star illuminate the path, guiding two travelers on their way. The cypress rises beyond the canvas edge, a dark vertical form bridging earth and sky, embodying both the physical grandeur and symbolic depth Van Gogh perceived in the tree.
Painted shortly before his departure for Auvers-sur-Oise, this work reflects Van Gogh’s ongoing experimentation with color and brushwork. The canvas is animated by rhythmic, wave-like strokes, their short, deliberate placement creating a dynamic sense of movement. The interplay of deep greens, cobalt blues, and warm yellows creates a chromatic tension that heightens the emotional impact of the scene.
Interpretations of the painting often turn to its symbolic dimension. Scholars such as Kathleen Powers Erickson and Naomi Maurer have read the composition as a meditation on mortality. The cypress, long associated with death and eternity in Mediterranean culture, is positioned between the fading evening star and the emerging crescent moon—cosmic markers of transition and renewal. The two travelers, dwarfed by the monumental tree, evoke the human journey in the context of infinity.
The painting also resonates with Van Gogh’s sense of connection to Provence. For him, the cypress was more than a motif: it was the emblem of the region, and he once expressed a desire to paint them “like the canvases of the sunflowers.” Country Road in Provence by Night serves as a fitting summation of his Saint-Rémy period, uniting the vitality of nature, the intimacy of rural life, and the profound spiritual undercurrents that define his late work.