Explore the Olive trees as a subject of this artwork.
Painting the countryside, the surrounding fields, cypress trees and olive trees restored van Gogh's connection to nature through art. He completed at least 15 paintings in 1889 of "venerable, gnarled olive trees," pervasive throughout southern France,  of which he wrote: The effect of daylight and the sky means there are endless subjects to be found in olive trees.  For myself I look for the contrasting effects in the foliage, which changes with the tones of the sky.  At times, when the tree bares its pale blossoms and big blue flies, emerald fruit beetles and cicadas in great numbers fly about, everything is immersed in pure blue.  Then, as the bronzer foliage takes on more mature tones, the sky is radiant and streaked with green and orange, and then again, further into autumn, the leaves take on violet tones something of the color of a ripe fig, and this violet effect manifests itself most fully with the contrast of the large, whitening sun within its pale halo of light lemon.  Sometimes, too, after a shower I've seen the whole sky pink and orange, which gave an exquisite value and coloring to the silvery gray-greens.  And among all this were women, also pink, who were gathering the fruit.
He found olive trees, representative of Provence, both "demanding and compelling." He wrote to his brother Theo that he was "struggling to catch (the olive trees). They are old silver, sometimes with more blue in them, sometimes greenish, bronzed, fading white above a soil which is yellow, pink, violet tinted orange... very difficult." He found that the "rustle of the olive grove has something very secret in it, and immensely old. It is too beautiful for us to dare to paint it or to be able to imagine it."
Theo Provence