Adam and Eve in paradise (The Fall) (1531) by Lucas Cranach the ElderGemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
The Fall, 1531
It all began with an apple - ever since Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge in the garden of Eden, artists have seen this subject as an exciting opportunity to depict man and woman au naturel.
Few captured that seminal moment better than Lucas Cranach the Elder in this 1531 panel painting, The Fall. Standing under the weighty, suggestive boughs of the tree of knowledge, Eve offers the forbidden fruit to the enticed Adam.
The Harvesters (1565) by Pieter Bruegel the ElderThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Harvesters, 1565
Around the same time, Pieter Breughel the Elder painted a moment of respite during the late-summer harvest. Away from the wheat fields, under the shade of a pear tree, a group of peasants take a break from scything and stacking to eat lunch.
In all directions, the landscape is filled with trees, but our eyes are drawn to the woods closest. And if you take a closer look, you'll see people picking fruit.
A Wooded Landscape (1667) by Meindert HobbemaThe J. Paul Getty Museum
A Wooded Landscape, 1667
Meindert Hobbema was an exemplary painter who specialised in woodlands. His quiet country scenes often feature a towering tree, cottages shaded by coppices, cool, still millponds, and weary travellers taking a moment to rest.
Other artists often used trees as framing devices, but Hobbema seems to be genuinely interested in them. His landscapes are idealised, but the vegetation is as varied as it is in nature.
Pine Trees (Azuchi-Momoyama period, 16th century) by Hasegawa TouhakuTokyo National Museum
Pine Trees, 1500s
Hasegawa Tōhaku's forest scene uses more negative space than ink. Only a few pine trees poke out of the morning mist, many more appear almost as ghosts in the faintest grey. It goes to show that naturalism is not always needed in art.
Landscape scenes such as this drew on a long history of heavily stylised, semi-abstract painting, dating back to the Chinese painter-monk Muqi of the Southern Song dynasty (c. 1127-1279).
Mishima Pass in Kai Province (1830/1831) by Hokusai, Katsushika & Yohachi, NishimurayaBristol Museums
Mishima Pass in Kai Province, 1830-1
Later Japanese artists, such as Katsushika Hokusai, used an even more stylised aesthetic, but also stayed in touch with the natural world. This woodcut print of a large pine tree at Mishima Pass places its subject front and centre, and suggests that it even surpasses Mount Fuji.
By using a woodcut, Hokusai was able to create fine details that really capture the rough bark of this ancient tree.
The Starry Night (1889) by Vincent van GoghMoMA The Museum of Modern Art
The Starry Night, 1889
The subjects and composition of Japanese prints inspired later European artists such as Vincent van Gogh. The result was one of the most famous trees in art; the towering Cypress in Starry Night, whose trembling branches reach up into the swirling heavens above.
These evergreens are common across much of continental Europe, where they're associated with churches, graveyards, and death. In this picture, that association is cemented; the form of the cypress echoes of the spire of the distant church.
Winter Sun at Lavacourt (1879 - 1880) by Claude MonetMuMa - Musée d'art moderne André Malraux
Claude Monet was another artist inspired by the elegant style and simplicity of Eastern art. This pale pink and sky blue painting of the rising sun at Lavacourt shows the play of light over the barren winter landscape and its leafless plantlife.
Look closely, and see how Monet suggests the form of distant roofs and trees with just a few smears of paint.
The Hungry Lion Attacking An Antelope (1898-1905) by Henri RousseauFondation Beyeler
Henri Rousseau told stories of his time in the rainforests. In truth, he had never left France. His vibrant jungle scenes were dreamt up in the tropical botanical gardens of Paris. Many of his exotic trees are simply oversized houseplants.
But what an active imagination he had! Even if his technique seemed childlike and his settings outlandish, he created visions of leafy rainforests and tangled jungles that last to this day.
Study in Colour and Form (1911) by Emily CarrRoyal BC Museum
Study in Colour and Form, 1911
In the early years of the 20th Century, modernists would take up the mantle of art, and painters such as Rousseau would be championed. In 1911, the Canadian Emily Carr was studying in France when she painted this vivid landscape composed almost entirely of complementary colours.
Trees in Autumn (1920-1921) by Georgia O'KeeffeGeorgia O'Keeffe Museum
Trees in Autumn, 1920-1
Georgia O'Keeffe is said to be the artist who brought modernism to the United States. In the 1920s, she became known for her ambiguous studies of form and colour in flowers. This work resembles those, but takes the turning leaves of trees in autumn as its subject.
Gerald's Tree I (1937) by Georgia O'KeeffeGeorgia O'Keeffe Museum
Gerald's Tree I, 1937
In the 1930s, O'Keeffe secluded herself from the city to live a simpler life focussed on work, in the deserts of New Mexico. Geralds Tree I draws all attention to the spikey, grey-brown trunk of a dead cedar tree that stood in the red hills of O'Keeffe's home, Ghost Ranch.
Patches of thin green scrub around its base only emphasise how bone-dry this tree is. O'Keeffe named the tree, and this painting, after her friend Gerald Heard, who became enamoured by the subject on a visit to Ghost Ranch. Perhaps O'Keeffe saw something of Heard in this?
