Trees in Alupka

Ciągliński painted Trees in Alupka during a trip to Crimea, likely around the same period as the Yalta flower studies. The composition is almost entirely tree — a heavy, twisting trunk and branch sweep across the canvas from right to left, dark brown against a sky of pale pinks, blues, and yellows. Dense dark foliage fills the upper right corner. The paint is thick and fast, the brushwork visible in every stroke, and the light coming through the gaps in the branches has a warm, southern quality. Alupka sits on the southern coast of Crimea, and the tree has the gnarled, wind-shaped look of something that's been growing on a hillside above the Black Sea for a long time.