# The Poet's Garden

**Vincent van Gogh** (Dutch, 1853–1890)  
1888  
Oil on canvas  
73 × 92.1 cm (28 3/4 × 36 1/4 in.); Framed: 96.6 × 116.9 cm (38 × 46 in.)

Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.433. [The museum's record](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14586).

## About this work

Lush grasses dotted with small white flowers lead into a grove of bushy trees in every shade from deep green to gold, beneath a heavy yellow sky. Van Gogh painted this corner of the public garden near his Yellow House in Arles in 1888, one of several views he called The Poet’s Garden, intended to decorate the room he was preparing for Paul Gauguin, whose arrival he eagerly awaited. He imagined the garden as a place where poets of the past, such as Petrarch and Boccaccio, might have walked, and he painted it with thick, energetic strokes of saturated colour.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Vincent van Gogh painted this in 1888, aged 35. It is now at the Art Institute of Chicago.

### What you’re looking at

Lush tall grasses with small white flowers foreground a grove of bushy trees of varying types and heights, their leaves ranging from deep green to golden. Beneath a dense and heavy yellow sky, a small blue triangle suggesting a mountain peak crests above the treeline at far left.

_Description from the Art Institute of Chicago._

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

### [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: Painting
- Culture: Netherlands
- The artist was 35
- Real size: about 29 × 36 in (73 × 92 cm). The 24 × 36 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 19th century
- Movement: [Post-Impressionism](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/post-impressionism)
- Subjects: landscapes, garden, poets, bushes, flora, foliage, flowers, trees
- Colour: olive
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/33.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/33/1920.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; 24 × 36 in $108; 30 × 40 in $148
- 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; 24 × 36 in $258; 30 × 40 in $338
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148; 24 × 36 in $178; 30 × 40 in $228
- 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; 24 × 36 in $5; 30 × 40 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/the-poet-s-garden-aic-14586).