Vincent van Gogh, 1853 - 1890, Dutch
Pollard Willows Setting Sun
Rijks Museum Kroller-Muller, Otterlo
Bridgeman Art Library, London
SuperStock

Yellow sunlight streams over the canvas.  One year after van Gogh's death, Octave Mirbeau wrote of him, "He was not absorbed by nature.  He had absorbed nature into himself; he had forced it to unbend, to mold itself into the shapes of his thoughts, to follow him in his flights, even to submit to his highly characteristic deformations...He spares no effort, to the benefit of the trees, skies, flowers and fields, which he inflates with the astonishing dream of his being."