fresh pollarded willow
It is january and winter but the temperature is above zero. The right moment to pollard the willows in my garden. Many branches are very long and heavy. So heavy that in stormy weather the willows run the risk being torn. Pollarding eight willows is quite a job but the result is rewarding. It is like creating a new landscape. The pollard willow is characteristic for the Dutch polder landscape. The willow likes moist and most of them are standing in a row near a ditch or canal. A Dutch landscape with water and cows without pollard willows is almost unthinkable. For a painter an old pollard willow with its lumpy head covered with branches and his often weather worn stem is an excellent object . The painting made by Mathijs Maris clearly demonstrates the beauty of an aged pollard willow. W.H. Roelofs painted many polder landscapes with willows. On the left a nice composition of a row of pollard willows along the water in a flat polder landscape. More Dutch than Willem Roelofs is almost impossible. If one studies Dutch landscapes it is striking that there are few paintings of pollard willows with bald branches, let alone freshly pollarded willows. Apparently it is almost always summer through the eye of a painter. There are however a few exceptions like the winterpainter H. Avercamp, Rembrandt, A.M. Gorter en Vincent van Gogh. Avercamp usually amply decorates his lively iceviews with trees, but the bald pollard willow is scarce and hardly plays a role in the composition. A.M.Gorter was a dedicated painter of the seasons . He made many autumn and winter landscapes with birches and also pollard willows. (see left). On Rembrandt's drawings and etches it is difficult to trace the pollard willow because of the loose style with which he drew trees. But he made a detailed study (etch) of an old solitary pollard willow. Probably later he added Saint Jerome in the background. Rembrandt used the old willow as a metaphor for the aged saint, who despite many setbacks continued his work with perseverance. In my opinion Vincent van Gogh is the master of the bald pollard willow and worth a separate story.