Scripture · Luke 10:25-37
Matthew 26:36-39
The Olive Trees
Then Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He told them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.” Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.”
The movement does not stop at the trees. Twisting trunks lead into rippling ground, a rolling mountain ridge, and a great curling cloud. Van Gogh made this daylight landscape a companion to The Starry Night, carrying a related energy into the olive grove.
About the artwork
MoMA describes this June–July 1889 canvas as the daylight partner to The Starry Night. In both works, Van Gogh intensified color and the rhythm of lines beyond a literal record of a view. Here the curves travel from roots to foliage to sky. The grove feels connected by movement even though there is no person to give it an action or a story.
Later that year, in a letter to Émile Bernard, Van Gogh argued that a painter could express anguish without reconstructing the historical garden of Gethsemane. He was working among olive trees, but also discussing other landscapes whose colors and forms could convey anxiety or peace. The letter helps explain how an ordinary place could carry deep feeling for him; it is not an explanation written for this particular earlier canvas.
Featured in: Was Van Gogh a Christian? His Faith in 11 Paintings, and the Café Terrace “Last Supper”
What does Matthew 26:36-39 mean?
Matthew 26:36–39 brings Jesus and His disciples to Gethsemane after the Last Supper. He asks them to remain and keep watch, speaks of overwhelming sorrow, and prays that the cup might pass from Him while entrusting Himself to the Father’s will.
The passage allows anguish and trust to be present in the same prayer. In the gallery’s pairing, the open grove offers space to linger with that tension: the uneven earth, the shelter of foliage, and the sky beyond it. The painting supplies a landscape for contemplation; Matthew supplies the person, the words, and the situation.
The grove’s restless forms accompany a prayer in which sorrow is spoken and trust is still possible.
Sources
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 581.1998.
Was Van Gogh a Christian? His Faith in 11 Paintings. Painting history and the limits of the religious interpretation, with primary letters and museum sources.
Matthew 26 — Berean Standard Bible.
Van Gogh to Émile Bernard — letter 822. November 1889 reflections on observed landscapes, expressive color, and imagined biblical scenes; later than this canvas.
Also from Matthew:Marriage of the VirginThe Dream of Saint Joseph
Continue looking:The Last SupperThe Agony in the GardenSaint Martin