# Road in Etten

**Vincent van Gogh** (Dutch, 1853–1890)  
1881  
Chalk, pencil, pastel, watercolor. Underdrawing in pen and brown ink.  
15 1/2 x 22 3/4 in. (39.4 x 57.8 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975.1.774. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/459193).

## About this work

A road lined with trees runs through the flat countryside near Etten, the village in the southern Netherlands where Van Gogh’s father was pastor and where the young artist lived in 1881, in the first year of his career as an artist. Working in chalk, pencil, pastel and watercolour over a pen underdrawing, he was still teaching himself, and the careful perspective and layering of media show his determination to master the craft of drawing.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Vincent van Gogh painted this in 1881, aged 28. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Pastel.** Sticks of almost pure pigment with very little binder. The colour sits on the paper as powder: bright, matte and fragile.
- **Chalk.** Natural black, red and white chalks. Used together on toned paper they could give the warmth of flesh with very little effort, and they were favourites for studies from life.
- **Watercolour.** Pigment in gum arabic, thinned with water and laid in transparent washes. Nothing white is painted: the light is the paper showing through.

### [Vincent van Gogh](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/vincent-van-gogh)

Dutch, 1853–1890; born in Zundert; died in Auvers-sur-Oise

Van Gogh worked as an art dealer, teacher and lay preacher before he turned to art in 1880, at twenty-seven. His early pictures of Dutch peasants are dark and heavy; in Paris from 1886 he met the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists, and his palette brightened. In Arles in 1888–89 he painted with intense colour and thick, directional strokes, and he worked on at the asylum in Saint-Rémy and finally at Auvers-sur-Oise. The Poet’s Garden belongs to a group made to decorate Gauguin’s room in the Yellow House.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Drawings
- The artist was 28
- Real size: about 16 × 23 in (39 × 58 cm). The 18 × 24 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 19th century
- Movement: [Post-Impressionism](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/post-impressionism)
- Subjects: Roads, Men, Trees
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1271.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1271/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/road-in-etten-met-459193).