Apr 16, 2025
Branching out
To welcome Toronto’s newest viral tree sensation, here are a few from the AGO Collection
Japanese. Cherry Blossoms at Uyeno Park from Views of Tokyo, Nikko, Yokohama, c. 1880. Albumen print, hand-tinted, Image: 19.8 × 25.2 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of John Silverstein and Bernice Eisenstein, 2004. Photo AGO. 2003/1373.4
Contrary to popular wisdom but much to our benefit, artists just keep missing the forest for the trees. For centuries they have persisted in delighting us with images of majestic and lonesome trees — both real and imagined. On any given day, trees of all kinds, shapes, and mediums flourish under the AGO’s canopy.
To welcome Toronto’s newest deciduous celebrity, Rodney, the Eastern Redbud sapling on Massey Street, (he of the more than 9,000 comments on Reddit and 182 Google reviews) allow us to introduce a few of our favourite trees from the AGO Collection. After all trees that grow close together are better at withstanding storms.
Elaine Ling. Baobab #29, Madagascar, 2015. Platinum/palladium print, Print: 45.6 × 57 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario, Anonymous gift, 2017. © Estate of Elaine Ling. 2017/68.8
Lionel Arthur John Thomas, Tree Forms, 1951. Gift from the John Paris Bickell Bequest Fund, 1953. Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 66 cm. Gift from the John Paris Bickell Bequest Fund, 1953. Photo © AGO
George Agnew Reid. The Pink Tree, 1900. Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard, Overall: 35.6 x 30.5 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Mary Wrinch Reid, 1954. Photo © AGO. 53/37
A. Duperly & Sons, Tom Cringle's Cotton Tree, Spanish Town Road, Jamaica, c. 1900. gelatin silver print, 17.7 × 23 cm. Montgomery Collection of Caribbean Photographs. Purchase, with funds from Dr. Liza & Dr. Frederick Murrell, Bruce Croxon & Debra Thier, Wes Hall & Kingsdale Advisors, Cindy & Shon Barnett, Donette Chin-Loy Chang, Kamala-Jean Gopie, Phil Lind & Ellen Roland. © Art Gallery of Ontario
David Brown Milne, Symmetrical Trees, c. 1910. Watercolour over graphite on illustration board, Overall: 43.8 x 36.2 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario, Gift of David Milne Jr., 2009. Photo © AGO. 2009/320
Carl Wilhelm Kolbe, the elder, Fantastic large oak tree with a stork's nest, date unknown. Etching on paper, 47 x 62.6 cm. Purchased as a Gift of Inco Ltd., 1981 © Art Gallery of Ontario 79/20
Franklin Carmichael, Wild Cherry, 1938. Oil on hardboard, 75.7 x 91.5 cm. The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario, 2017. Photo © AGO. 2017/223
![Keith Haring in a Top Hat [Self-Portrait], (1989)](/sites/default/files/styles/image_small/public/2023-11/KHA-1626_representation_19435_original-Web%20and%20Standard%20PowerPoint.jpg?itok=MJgd2FZP)
