Conversations in Drawing: Seven Centuries of Art from the Gray Collection at the Morgan Library

An amazing exhibition of drawings. This Van Gogh is an example of the gems to be seen. 

Van Gogh seems to have been inspired to make this melancholy drawing after reading “Tristement” (Sadly) by the French writer François Coppée, known as “the Poet of the Humble.” The poem describes a mourning widow proceeding along “a very long lane of giant, half- denuded plane trees.” Time has enhanced the drawing’s autumnal mood. The irongall ink that Van Gogh used, once black, has faded to a dark brown and imparted a golden tone to the paper, and the hatched pen lines have bled and merged. The effect overall is a more muted contrast between light and dark.

Vincent van Gogh

Dutch, 1853–1890 

Avenue of Pollard Birches and Poplars, 1884 

Reed pen and iron-gall ink

Richard and Mary L. Gray, promised gift to the Art Institute of Chicago

Gray Collection Trust, Art Institute of Chicago

Photography by Jamie Stukenberg, Professional Graphics Inc.