Trees and Shrubs 1889

Vincent van Gogh's drawing, "Trees and Shrubs", presents a world rendered in stark blacks and whites, where the absence of color amplifies the textural complexity. The image vibrates with the energy of his marks. Notice how the lines create a sense of depth, the layering of shrubbery with densely packed strokes contrasts with the lighter, almost ephemeral rendering of the distant trees. Here, Van Gogh plays with the signifiers of landscape itself, reducing the natural world to a series of coded marks that prompt us to ask: what constitutes a tree, a shrub, or any element of nature when all that remains is a pattern of lines? In his translation of the landscape into the visual language, Van Gogh invites us to reconsider the essence of representation. Rather than merely copying nature, he translates it into a complex interplay of signs, suggesting that our experience of the world is always mediated through systems of representation and interpretation.