Trees in Art Posters and Prints

The tree at the center of the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis is known as the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. The idea of the tree or upright pole at the center are metaphors and motifs traceable to various world views.

Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) was a Flemish Gothic artist whose paintings of sin and human suffering from moral failings were presented in symbolically dense iconography that is considered to be a precursor to 20th century surrealism. His work graphically explores and exposes the human mind’s darkest fears with masterful use of color and detail.

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• Mary Cassatt, Gathering Fruit print

Artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude are well known for their large scale temporary environmental art installations that involve the disciplines of painting, sculpture, architecture and urban planning.

“Starting on Friday, November 13, 1998, 178 trees were wrapped with 55,000 square meters (592,034 square feet) of woven polyester fabric (used every winter in Japan to protect the trees from frost and heavy snow) and 23.1 kilometers (14.35 miles) of rope.” http://christojeanneclaude.net/wt.html

Vercingetorix is the name of the chieftain who unified the Gauls against the Romans in an ultimately unsuccessful war c. 45 BC; he is considered a folk hero in France even today.

French “realism” painter, Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), noted for his spontaneous style, believed the artist's mission was to pursue truth and erase social imbalances in the process, perhaps what Vercingetrorix was attempting to do.

England's Royal Sherwood Forest was the haunt to Robin Hood, the archetypal hero first referenced in the 14th century poem “Piers Plowman” as a yeoman, or freehold farmer of the middle class.

Sherwood Forest is currently a meager 165 square miles in Nottinghamshire, compared to the original area that extended over several counties that were continually forested since the end of the Ice Age.

Three Worlds Fine Art Print by M.C. Escher

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La Platane is French for tree, specifically the tree known as sycamore in North America.

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The effect of light and atmosphere on poplars is one of the subjects Impressionist artist Claude Monet studied in a process where he set up in the same place daily, switching canvases as the appearance of the object changed with time of day.

• perspective posters
• Autumn season posters

William Morris (1834-1896), an English artist, writer, socialist and activist, was one of the principal founders of the British Arts and Crafts movement.

The Arts and Craft movement promoted the immediate hand of the maker on the object and the distinction between artist and artisan was artificial :-).

• portrait of William Morris

French painter Théodore Rousseau (1812-1867), was noted for his rendering of trees and natural landscapes.

He was associated with the Barbizon art movement named after the village of Barbizon, near Fontainebleau Forest.

Jacob George Strutt made engraved reproductions of his tree portraits for Sylva Britannica (Trees of Britain) dedicated to the Duke of Bedford in 1826. In his introduction Strutt said "Among all the varied productions by which nature has adorned the surface of the earth, none awakens our sympathies, or interests our imagination, so powerfully as those venerable trees which seem to have stood the lapse of the ages, silent witnesses of the successive generations of man, to whose destiny they bear so touching a resemblance, alike in their budding, their prime, their decay."

Absalom, the third son of King David, died when his long hair became intangled in oak tree branches. Absalom was fleeing with his routed army in his attempted revolt against his father.

American author William Faulkner alluded to the Bibical story by entitling one of his novels "Absalom, Absalom" in reference to a son fighting his father.

Piet Mondrian first painted landscapes, before moving through various styles, including Cubism, to arrive at his signature gridwork style that radically simplified form and color to reveal the basic principles beneath the visible world.

The Olive Tree, a small evergreen tree/shrub native to coastal areas of the Mediterranean, Asia Minor and parts of Africa, has been cultivated since ancient times as a source of its fruit, oil and fine wood.

One of the symbols of Athena, the olive is integral to Homer's Odyssey, and mentioned frequently in the Bible and the Qur'an. The Hebrew word Getsemane means oll press.

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Yggdrasil is the sacred Ash of Norse Mythology (ygg=terrible + drasil=horse), where Odin hung for nine days in the search for the sacred Runes.

The idea of the Axis Mundi, or world-axis, and a sacred World Tree whose trunk is the connection between Heaven and Earth, is a common symbol in diverse cultures and religions: the sacred tree of Buddha, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Sefirot of Judaism, steeples and the Christian Cross, stupas of Hinduism, minarets of Islam, the caduceus of medicine, Maypoles, totem poles of the Pacific Northwest. As secular symbols the Washington Monument, and the Eiffel Tower, or any of the new office buildings are claiming the same power to connect Earth with Heaven.

The Druids were the priests, healers, and scholars of ancient Celts that were supplanted by the conquering Romans and Christians. They are associated with nature and seasons, venerating mistletoe, holly, and sacred oaks.

• Bellini poster