Vincent van Gogh’s started painting late and died young. However, over a period of 10 years, he was able to complete almost 900 paintings, over 1,100 sketches, and lithographs. Some motives keep reappearing in the Post-Impressionist‘s artwork, among them sunflowers, cypress trees, and vast landscapes, which he turned to time and again. The picture “Wheat Field with Cypresses” is one of van Gogh’s most famous paintings and one among three similar works, that he created in 1889 as part of his wheat field series. As with so many of his artworks, these series have left us with numberless questions. Art historians widely consider the wheat fields to have been borne out of van Gogh’s religious beliefs, his strong connection to nature, and his desire to provide relief to others.
Where is the picture “Wheat Field with Cypresses” today?
Vincent van Gogh’s original painting “Wheat Field with Cypresses” can be seen as part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
What’s in it?
The painting displays vast fields of ripe wheat in front of the Alpilles mountains, whit a dense Provençal cypress towering like an obelisk on the right, surrounded by olive trees. White clouds are swirling above in an azure blue sky, painted in his expressive and emotive style with the brisk application of impastoed paint.
What’s the context?
Van Gogh Facts:
- Vincent van Gogh’s famous landscape painting “Wheat Field with Cypresses” is thought to have been inspired by the view from his cell in a mental asylum at Saint-Rémy near Arles in France, where he stayed voluntarily one year as a patient.
- Van Gogh created “Wheat Field with Cypresses” when he was able to leave the asylum, just a few months before he would commit suicide.
- He believed that this artwork was one of his best landscape paintings. He later painted two slightly more refined versions of the same motive.
- Wheat had a symbolic meaning for van Gogh, reflecting his spiritual beliefs, the connection to nature, and the appreciation of manual labourers. In one of his letters to his brother Theo, he wrote: “What can a person do when he thinks of all the things he cannot understand, but look at the fields of wheat… We, who live by bread, are we not ourselves very much like wheat… to be reaped when we are ripe.”
Recommended Readings:
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Ingo F. Walther et al. (2020): Van Gogh. The Complete Paintings
Vincent Van GoghVincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890) is one of the renowned Post-Impressionist artists, best known for his striking use of colour, emphatic brushwork, and contoured forms. As a son of a pastor, the Dutch artist war brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere. After working unsuccessfully as a clerk at a bookstore, as a salesman, and as a preacher More (2020): The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh
Martin Gayford (2008): The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Provence
Steven Naifeh et al. (2012): Van Gogh: The Life (RANDOM HOUSE)
Steven Naifeh (2021): Van Gogh and the Artists He Loved
