Pollard Birches - by Vincent van Gogh

This pencil drawing, Pollard Birch depicts the winter landscape with bare trees and how the hard working farmers struggle through the long winter. This paintings show how the landscape changes in the countryside and the real life of farmers in the difficult wintertime.

In this drawing, Van Gogh has drawn several rows of pollard birches in a highly competent pen technique. He sketches these trees and then goes over them in pen and ink. Over time the original black ink has faded to its present brown tone and this gives the painting a rather tragic effect. The composition of the artwork is simple pen and ink lines, some much darker and rougher than others, in order to show the fight between farmers and crops. As you look deeper into the painting you can see the trees getting closer together and the atmosphere gets darker, which shows that the field never ends and creates a dramatic and chilling feel to the painting.