Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00000261The Large Plane Trees (Road Menders at Saint-Rémy)
Also known as: Les Paveurs (The Road Menders, Boulevard de St.-Rémy, Arles); Road Menders; The Road Menders at Arles; The Road Menders at St. Remy
About the Artwork
Like Two Poplars in the Alpilles near Saint-Rémy (on view nearby), Vincent van Gogh painted this autumnal landscape while living in a psychiatric hospital near Saint-Rémy in southern France where he was treated for severe depression. Understanding that painting from nature eased his symptoms, Van Gogh’s physician permitted the artist to paint landscapes outside. Van Gogh described this painting in a letter to his brother Theo: “The last study I did is a view of the village, where they were at work under some enormous plane trees—repairing the pavements. . . . There are heaps of sand, stones, and the gigantic trunks—the leaves yellowing and here and there you can get a glimpse of a house front and small figures.”
Provenance
1890: Theo van Gogh [1857-1891], Paris, France Julien Leclercq [1865-1901] Paris, France (see document b1533 v/1962 in the archive of the Van Gogh Museum (Schuffenecker Brothers, Paris, France, sold to Gustave Fayet, Igny, France) Gustave Fayet [1865-1925], Igny, France 1929-1931: Gilbert E. Fuller, Boston, MA (Paul Rosenberg, New York, NY, July 18, 1947, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1947-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Work by Vincent Van Gogh. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 3-December 12, 1948). Van Gogh: Paintings and Drawings. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (October 21, 1949-January 15, 1950); The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (February 1-April 15, 1950). Four Modes of Composition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10-October 27, 1954). In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-April 7, 1958). Van Gogh in St. Remy and Auvers. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (November 25, 1986-March 22, 1987). Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987). Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh Museum, 1070 AJ Amsterdam, Netherlands (March 30-July 29, 1990). Vincent van Gogh 1990. Kröller-Müller Museum (co-organizer) (March 30-July 29, 1990); Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam, Netherlands (organizer) (co-organizer) (March 30-July 29, 1990). Masterworks from The Phillips Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-May 29, 2005). Right Under the Sun: Painting in Provence from Classicism to Modernism (1750-1920). Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (organizer) (September 22, 2005-January 8, 2006). Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Beijing World Art Museum (May 26-August 27, 2006); Mori Art Center (September 16-November 26, 2006); Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009). Van Gogh: Up Close. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (January 26-May 6, 2012); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ont.,, Canada (organizer) (May 25-September 2, 2012). Van Gogh Repetitions. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC (organizer) (October 12, 2013-February 2, 2014); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 2-May 26, 2014). There’s Nothing like the Real Thing: Van Gogh at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 17-December 5, 2021). Vincent van Gogh: Poets and Lovers. National Gallery, London, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (September 14, 2024-January 19, 2025) https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/van-gogh-poets-and-lovers.
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 7, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890)
- Date
- 1889
- Medium
- oil on fabric
- Dimensions
- Framed: 104.5 x 124.5 x 7.6 cm (41 1/8 x 49 x 3 in.); Unframed: 73.4 x 91.8 cm (28 7/8 x 36 1/8 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Gift of the Hanna Fund
- Accession no.
- 1947.209
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Open-access museum record · AT-00000261
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