Landscape with windswept trees 1884

Vincent van Gogh created this oil on paper painting called 'Landscape with windswept trees'. Van Gogh spent time in the countryside when his religious calling was rejected and he worked as a missionary in a mining community. Here, the emotional landscape of the artist mirrors the physical one. We see the trees leaning and bending, fighting against the wind's force, not unlike Van Gogh perhaps, resisting the conventions of his time. The way he paints the landscape offers a departure from traditional, idealized representations of nature. His landscapes are less about picturesque beauty and more about conveying the raw, untamed aspects of the natural world. Van Gogh once said, "It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done." You feel the love he had for the land and the working class in the brushstrokes. While society often values conformity and adherence to norms, consider how this piece honours the struggle and the imperfect beauty of those who dare to bend but not break.