The tree roots of Van Gogh’s last painting have been saved

Whose are the exposed tree roots in Auvers-sur-Oise that Vincent van Gogh depicted in his last painting? Due to the lack of clarity about the legal ownership, the tree remains discovered three years ago disappeared behind a wooden fence and were even threatened with removal.

The stumps have been saved now that a French court has ruled that the tree roots are on the property of Hélène and François Serlinger, residents of a house on Rue Daubigny. The French couple admire the Dutch painter, spent 35,000 euros on lawyer fees, and would like to make the roots accessible to the 300,000 Van Gogh tourists that Auvers attracts every year. The provisional, unauthorized fence that has been shielding the roots since January will soon be replaced by a permanent fence, the couple promises.

The bureaucratic conflict arose when Wouter van de Veen, director of the Institut Van Gogh, solved an art-historical riddle three years ago. After 130 years he had discovered the location where Van Gogh painted his swan song: just 120 meters from the inn in Auvers where he died two days later after shooting himself in the chest.

At the time, mayor Isabelle Mezières opposed a previously approved fence for the tree stumps. According to Van der Veen, she felt passed over because he had asked another notable to write the foreword to the book about his discovery.

Visual wart

Mezières started a lawsuit in which she claimed that the roots were on municipal land, that there was a risk of avalanches on the spot and that tourists in the traffic-calmed Rue Daubigny would cause dangerous situations. She wanted to put the tree stumps in a display case at a local museum.

Wouter van der Veen is relieved. “I’m glad that the treasure the Serlingers have in their backyard can now be shared.” The only problem, he says, is a 10-foot-wide and nearly 7-foot-tall wooden sign that the mayor had screwed into the sidewalk right in front of the fence. Van der Veen: “A visual wart that obscures the view of the roots.”

The painting with the tree roots can be seen at the exhibition until 3 September Van Gogh at Auvers at the Van Gogh Museum.