Capturing the lyrical rhythms of a grove of trees, Joan Mitchell’s ‘Trees’ (1990-1991) is a monumental diptych that was completed in the penultimate year of the artist’s career. This captivating composition reveals how nature became a source of solace and creative renewal for the artist in her late oeuvre. Painted at her studio in Vétheuil, France, near Claude Monet’s countryside home, ‘Trees’ echoes the Impressionists’ attention to landscape while preserving the energetic intensity of Abstract Expressionism. Related works from this celebrated period are held by The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and Saint Louis Art Museum.

‘I think to copy a real tree would be absolutely impossible. I can’t quote Van Gogh exactly, but where he says he gives gratitude to the sunflower because it exists, I give gratitude to trees because they exist… and that’s what my painting is about’.