''Green Wheat Field with Cypress'' (French: ''Champ de blé vert avec cyprès'') is an oil-on-canvas painting by Dutch

Post-Impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

. It is held by the

National Gallery Prague The National Gallery Prague ( cz, Národní galerie Praha, NGP), formerly the National Gallery in Prague (), is a state-owned art gallery in Prague, which manages the largest collection of art in the Czech Republic and presents masterpieces of Cze ...

, displayed at the (Fair Trade Palace) in the district of Holešovice, where the painting is known as ''Zelené obilí'' ("Green wheat"). Like many similar works at this time, the landscape painting was made on a size 30 canvas and measures . It depicts a field of largely green wheat with parts ripening to yellow. A tall dark fastigiate

cypress Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs of northern temperate regions that belong to the family Cupressaceae. The word ''cypress'' is derived from Old French ''cipres'', which was imported from Latin ''cypressus'', the l ...

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 Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bo ...

. 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 ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...

'': He sent an ink drawing of the painting (F1548, JH1726) with a letter to his brother

Theo Theo is a given name and a hypocorism. Greek origin Many names beginning with the root "Theo-" derive from the Ancient Greek word ''theos'' (''θεός''), which means god, for example: *Feminine names: Thea, Theodora, Theodosia, Theophania, ...

in early July 1889. The drawing is now in the

Morgan Library & Museum The Morgan Library & Museum, formerly the Pierpont Morgan Library, is a museum and research library in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is situated at 225 Madison Avenue, between 36th Street to the south and 37th S ...

in New York City. Van Gogh probably sent the painting to Theo with a consignment in September 1889.Letter 806
To Theo van Gogh. Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Saturday, 28 September 1889 Van Gogh made several other paintings of wheat fields with cypresses when he was able to leave the asylum grounds and explore the local landscape, with the wheat rapidly turning to a ripe yellow. Besides a fondness for

es, van Gogh had a special affinity with wheat fields; he depicted them dozens of times over the years; to Vincent they symbolized the cycle of life and death, and he found in them both solace and inspiration. Although the composition is similar to several paintings by other artists such as Monet,

Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Re ...

, Sisley, and

Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). H ...

, the art historian

Ronald Pickvance Ronald Pickvance (August 15, 1930, in Bolton – March 21, 2017, in Cheltenham) was a British art historian. His specialty was French art of the late 19th century. Pickvance studied art history at the University of Cambridge until 1953 and then m ...

says that "compared to high

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passag ...

practice, color is used more locally and the brushstrokes are more organic and vigorously hatched." However, "with no spatial distortions, no excessively heightened color tonalities, and no revolutionary symbolism, this landscape affirms its normality within an Impressionist convention. It neither manifests psychological tension nor projects a morbid vision." File:Vincent van Gogh - Wheatfield, Saint-Rémy de Provence - F1548 JH1726.jpg, Ink drawing of the painting (F1548, JH1726),

References

External link

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''Green Field''
Google Arts & Culture
''Green Wheat'' ("Zelené obilí")
National Gallery Prague {{Vincent van Gogh 1889 paintings Paintings of Arles by Vincent van Gogh Paintings in the collection of the National Gallery Prague Farming in art