science

Tree Roots

Tree Roots is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tree Roots rather than just read about it. In short: Tree Roots is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh that he painted in July 1890 when he lived in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. Likely Van Gogh's final painting, it is an example of the double-square canvases that he employed in his last landscapes.

Key takeaways

Tree Roots belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tree Roots to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tree Roots from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Tree Roots is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh that he painted in July 1890 when he lived in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. Likely Van Gogh's final painting, it is an example of the double-square canvases that he employed in his last landscapes.

Background Van Gogh spent the last few months of his life in Auvers-sur-Oise, a small town just north of Paris, after he left an asylum at Saint-Rémy in May 1890. The painting is considered by some to be his last painting before his death in late July 1890. Jan Hulsker considers it the most original of his double-square canvases. The viewer thinks he can identify tree roots and trunks, but is hard put to identify the subject as a whole. Van der Veen and Knapp comment that in this painting, as also in Undergrowth with Two Figures, the painting itself and not the subject is pre-eminent, heralding abstract painting and German expressionism. In 1882, while at The Hague, Van Gogh had made a study of tree roots, Study of a Tree (below), which he had completed at the same time as a larger version (now lost) of Sorrow. In a letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh said that he wanted to express something of life's struggle in these drawings. It is not known whether he had returned to the same thoughts with his 1890 Tree Roots. The letters give no hint and the colours are perhaps too bright for such sombre thoughts.

On April 14, 1991 Tree Roots was stolen from the Van Gogh museum along with 19 other paintings. Tree Roots was successfully recovered. In 2020, Wouter Van der Veen, scientific director of Institut Van Gogh determined the probable location where the painting was made, based on an historical postcard, to be on the rue Daubigny in Auvers-sur-Oise. He confirmed his finding with a historical photograph from circa 1907 in 2021. The location is about 150 metres from Auberge Ravoux, Van Gogh's hotel at the time.

Hidden Self-Portrait Hypothesis In 2023, photographer Raymond Martinez suggested that the upper portion of "Tree Roots" might contain a hidden self-portrait of Vincent van Gogh. According to this interpretation, Van Gogh could have depicted his profile, one eye closed, as if rising toward the sky. Martinez noted similarities between this image and the posthumous sketch by Dr. Paul Gachet, made shortly after the artist's death. This hypothesis has not been scientifically validated by Van Gogh scholars. It raises questions about the possibility that the artist intentionally included a posthumous self-portrait, potentially linked to his spiritual beliefs.

See also List of works by Vincent van Gogh

Works

Letters

References

Bibliography de la Faille, Jacob-Baart. The Works of Vincent van Gogh: His Paintings and Drawings. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1970. ISBN 978-1-55660-811-7 Hulsker, Jan. The Complete Van Gogh. Oxford: Phaidon, 1980. ISBN 978-0-71482-028-6 Naifeh, Steven; Smith, Gregory White. Van Gogh: The Life. Profile Books, 2011. ISBN 978-1-84668-010-6 van der Veen, Wouter; Knapp, Peter. Van Gogh in Auvers: His Last Days. Monacelli Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-58093-301-8 (fr) Raymond Martinez, Sur les traces de Vincent van Gogh, Editions de l'Arlésienne, 2024. ISBN 979-1-04153-749-5

External links Tree Roots at the Van Gogh Museum website Media related to Tree roots by Vincent van Gogh at Wikimedia Commons

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tree Roots

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tree Roots claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tree Roots before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tree Roots ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tree Roots

In research: Tree Roots appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tree Roots in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tree Roots is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1890 paintings, Collection of the Van Gogh Museum, Oil paintings on canvas, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tree Roots outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tree Roots in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tree Roots means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tree Roots out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tree Roots in simple terms?

Why does Tree Roots matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tree Roots?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tree Roots.