Avenue of Pollard Birches and Poplars

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Prints and Drawings

March 1884

Vincent van Gogh
Dutch, 1853–1890

Vincent van Gogh seems to have been inspired to make this melancholy drawing after reading the poem “Tristement” (sadly) by the French writer François Coppee, who was known as the “poet of the humble.” The poem describes a mourning widow proceeding along “a very long lane of giant, halfdenuded plane trees.”

Time has enhanced the drawing’s autumnal mood. The iron-gall ink that Van Gogh used, once black, has altered to a dark brown and imparted a golden tone to the paper, the pen lines bleeding so that close hatchings merge and the contrast between light and dark is now muted.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Vincent van Gogh
Title: Avenue of Pollard Birches and Poplars
Place: Netherlands (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1884
Medium: Reed pen and iron-gall ink on tan laid paper
Inscriptions: Inscribed verso, lower left, in graphite: "Vincent / Van Gogh"
Dimensions: 19.2 × 26.5 cm (7 9/16 × 10 7/16 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray
Reference Number: 2022.74
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/202382/manifest.json

Jacob-Baart de la Faille, “Loveuvre de Vincent van Gogh: Catalogue raisonné” (G. Van Oest, 1928), vol. 3, p. 93, no. 124 (ill.).
Walther Vanbeselaere, “De hollandsche periode (1880-1885) in het werk van Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)” (De Sikkel, 1937), pp. 263, 353, 412.
Jacob-Baart de la Faille, “The Works of Vincent van Gogh: His Paintings and Drawings” (Reynal, with Morrow, 1970), p. 442, no. F1241 (ill.).
Jan Hulsker, “Van Gogh en zijn weg” (Meulenhoff, 1977), pp. 110-11, 486, no. 470 (ill.).
Jacob-Baart de la Faille, “Vincent van Gogh: The Complete Works on Paper; Catalog Raisonné” (Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 1992), pp. 93,317, no. 1241, pl. 104.
Jan Huskler, “The New Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, Drawings, Sketches; Rivised and Enlarged Edition of the Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of Vincent van Gogh” (J.M.Meulenhoff/John Benjamins, 1996), p. 110, fig. 470.
Sjraar van Heugten, “Vincent van Gogh Drawings” (Van Gogh Museum, 1997), vol.2, p. 98.

Art Institute of Chicago, Gray Collection: Seven Centuries of Art, Sept. 25, 2010–Jan. 20, 2011, cat. 70 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Pure Drawing: Seven Centuries of Art from the Gray Collection, Jan. 25–Oct. 12, 2020; traveled to New York, Morgan Library and Museum, Feb. 19–June 6, 2021 and Berkeley, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Aug. 4–Nov. 28, 2021.

A.G.A. van Rappard, Utrecht; Mrs. Spanjaard-Keller, the Hague; W.B. Tholen, the Hague; D’Audretsch Art Gallery, the Hague, 1940. F.C. d’Audretsch, Wassenaar/New York. Mrs. M. Frank, New York, acquired 1970; by descent; sold, Christie’s, New York, Nov. 15, 1989, lot 8; private collection, France; sold, Christie’s, New York, Nov. 18, 1998, lot 2, to Richard and Mary L. Gray and the Gray Collection Trust, Chicago (promised to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2018); given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2022.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.