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Henri-Joseph Harpignies, 'Olive Trees at Menton', 1907

About the work

Overview

Two tall, slender olive trees stand on the rough ground at the top of a hill overlooking the sea. Their trunks are crooked and gnarled, the brittle bark catching the sun and glinting here and there.

This is Menton on the French Côte d‘Azure. It was a fashionable resort in Harpignies’ time, but he has chosen to ignore the villas and restaurants among coloured umbrellas and palm trees to show us the tougher side of the Mediterranean, where plants and people had more of a struggle to live than down at the coast.

Harpignies harked back to the idyllic landscapes of Claude, painted nearly three centuries before, but without characters from Greek or Roman myth. He depicted what he saw around him, as other modern painters did, but with a smoother, more classical technique – he was of his day, but with a firm link to the past.

Key facts

Details

Full title
Olive Trees at Menton
Artist dates
1819 - 1916
Date made
1907
Medium and support
oil on canvas
Dimensions
99.7 × 81.3 cm
Inscription summary
Signed; Dated
Acquisition credit
Presented by H. Arthur Robinson to the Tate Gallery in memory of R.H. Tripp, 1923; transferred, 1956
Inventory number
NG3808
Location
Not on display
Collection
Main Collection

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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