Vincent Van Gogh is 37 years old when he paints his latest painting, Trees. A few hours later, this July 27, 1890, he tried to kill himself in the heart. He succumbed to his injuries two days later, in his bed. For more than 130 years, this ultimate canvas has continued to arouse questions about what it represents, of course, but also on the place and the circumstances of its realization.
Since the summer of 2020, part of the mystery has been lifted. Thanks to a postcard and old photos of the time, Wouter Van der Veen, a Franco-Dutch expert from the Van Gogh Institute, managed to determine the precise location of the roots painted by the artist.
The site is on the side of a hill by the rue Daubigny, in Auvers-sur-Oise, a town in Val-d’Oise, in Île-de-France. The tangle of roots of trees painted by Van Gogh would represent, according to specialists, an allegory of the struggle between life and death, which “Mark a last artistic act loaded with meaning”indicates the American magazine Smithsonian.
“The roots”
The Painted Farewell Note by Vincent Van Gogh done on the Morning before his fatal Gunshot wound, from which he died two days later, on the 29th of July 1890.
A PostCard from 1905 LED to the Discovery of its exact rental in Auvers-sur-Oise. pic.twitter.com/wsvldwlolc– Christian Mouawad (@chrherawad93) June 14, 2021
But since this important discovery for the art world, a legal battle has opposed the couple owner of the field, Jean-François and Hélène Serlinger, to the mayor of Auvers-sur-Oise, Isabelle Mézières.
A legal quarrel far from finished
The councilor would like to make the public site, while the Serlinger, who bought the land in 2013, defend their right to private property. The debate relates precisely to the question of whether the famous roots are part of the garden of Jean-François and Hélène Serlinger or rue Daubigny, property of the city.
A 2023 judgment determined that the roots belong to private property, but Isabelle Mézières did not hear it by this ear (obviously, when we talk about Van Gogh). “After an appeal brought by Mayor Isabelle Mézières, another court confirmed the previous decision last month”explains the article of the Smithsonian.
“The embankment containing the roots of trees painted by Vincent Van Gogh is not an accessory of the public road”judged on March 18 a court of appeal based in Versailles. The couple said to the British daily The Independent to be very happy with this decision.
Important information: since 2020, the couple manages the vangoghroots.com site and organizes paid guided tours of the site, adding it to the network of sites linked to the Dutch painter which parsèment Auvers-sur-Oise, as the room where they are dead. For Isabelle Mézières, the story is far from over. “These roots are a common good, not a commercial object”she wrote in a post published on Facebook, suggesting that the city did not say its last word.
