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
- Henri-Joseph Harpignies
- 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
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, with additions and some revisions by Cecil Gould, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, etc.’, London 1970; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
-
1957Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1957
-
1970Davies, Martin, and Cecil Gould, National Gallery Catalogues: French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists etc., London 1970
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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.