Cypresses

What you are looking at

Two tall, dark cypress trees twist up through the canvas like green flames against a swirling sky with a crescent moon, above a field of bushes.

Why it is famous

Van Gogh painted it in June 1889 at Saint-Rémy, the same month as The Starry Night. He wrote that he was surprised nobody had painted cypresses the way he saw them.

How big is Cypresses?

Cypresses measures 93.4 × 74 cm (36.8 × 29.1 in), without its frame. Its surface is about one and a half times the area of the Mona Lisa.

Compare it with other paintings

Where to see it

It is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in the same gallery as Wheat Field with Cypresses.

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More by Vincent van Gogh

The Potato EatersVincent van Gogh, 1885 AmsterdamSelf-Portrait with a Straw HatVincent van Gogh, 1887 New YorkCafé Terrace at NightVincent van Gogh, 1888 OtterloThe Night CaféVincent van Gogh, 1888 New Haven, ConnecticutThe BedroomVincent van Gogh, 1888 AmsterdamSunflowersVincent van Gogh, 1888 London

All Vincent van Gogh paintings

Also at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The HarvestersPieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565 New YorkThe MusiciansCaravaggio, 1597 New YorkView of ToledoEl Greco, c. 1599 to 1600 New YorkJuan de ParejaDiego Velázquez, 1650 New YorkAristotle with a Bust of HomerRembrandt, 1653 New YorkYoung Woman with a Water PitcherJohannes Vermeer, c. 1662 New York

Sources: The Met, "Cypresses" (49.30). Checked October 17, 2026. How we check.