Description
Green Wheat Field with Cypress was made on a size 30 canvas and measures 73 cm × 93.5 cm (28.7 in × 36.8 in). It depicts a field of largely green wheat with parts ripening to yellow. A tall dark fastigiate cypress tree is at the centre of the scene, next to a small white house, with mountains in the background, and a blue sky with white clouds above. The painting was completed in 1889, while van Gogh was voluntarily incarcerated at the asylum of St. Paul near Saint-Rémy in Provence.
On 16 June 1889, Vincent wrote to his sister Wil that he had just completed the painting, just a few days after he was allowed out to paint en plein air:
Then yet another [landscape] that depicts a field of yellowing wheat surrounded by brambles and green bushes. At the end of the field a little pink house with a tall and dark cypress tree that stands out against the distant purplish and bluish hills, and against a forget-me-not blue sky streaked with pink whose pure tones contrast with the already heavy, scorched ears, whose tones are as warm as the crust of a loaf of bread.”
He sent an ink drawing of the painting (F1548, JH1726) with a letter to his brother Theo in early July 1889. The drawing is now in the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. Van Gogh probably sent the painting to Theo with a consignment in September 1889.
Read our guide to giclée prints, browse more Vincent van Gogh prints, or explore Wheat Field with Cypresses.
