MURA · THE COLLECTION · VINCENT VAN GOGH

Undergrowth with Two Figures

Undergrowth with Two Figures is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh from June 1890, made at Auvers-sur-Oise. It measures 49.5 by 99.7 centimetres and belongs to the Cincinnati Art Museum, accession number 1967.1430, the bequest of Mary E. Johnston. It is catalogued as F773 and JH2041.

Vincent van Gogh · 1890 · Oil on canvas · Post-Impressionism · story written 25 September 2026

What you are looking at

Violet-blue trunks rise through a carpet of green, dotted with flowers and two small figures. Van Gogh described the picture himself in a letter to Theo and Jo of 2 July 1890: "Then undergrowth, violet trunks of poplars which cross the landscape perpendicularly like columns. The depths of the undergrowth are blue, and under the big trunks the flowery meadow, white, pink, yellow, green, long russet grasses and flowers." The letter carried a sketch of the composition, which the editors title Couple walking between rows of poplars and note was made after the painting.

How it was painted

Van Gogh had settled in Auvers in May 1890 after leaving the hospital at Saint-Rémy, under the care of Dr Paul Gachet. The Commons record dates the canvas to late June, and its format, roughly 50 by 100 centimetres, matches the elongated canvases he cut for his late landscapes.

Woodland undergrowth, or sous-bois, was a subject he had returned to since 1887. Wikipedia's survey of these works lists undergrowth pictures from Paris in 1887, from the hospital garden at Saint-Rémy in 1889, and this canvas as the Auvers example of 1890. He died in Auvers on 29 July 1890.

Where it went

The painting came to the Cincinnati Art Museum by the bequest of Mary E. Johnston, accessioned as 1967.1430. The museum's record lists it in the department of European Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings and, at the time of writing, as not on display. Wikipedia notes that wax was applied to the back of the canvas in 1975 and that the work has been undergoing restoration. The reproduction is the Google Arts & Culture file on Wikimedia Commons.

Why it is in Mura

It belongs to the Van Gogh collection with a verdant mood: the one interior of a wood among his Auvers landscapes, all vertical trunks and ground.