''A Wheatfield with Cypresses'' is any of three similar 1889 oil paintings by

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, 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 ...

, as part of his wheat field series. All were exhibited at the

Saint-Paul-de-Mausole Monastery of Saint-Paul de Mausole (french: monastère Saint-Paul-de-Mausole) is a former monastery in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Provence, France. Several rooms of the building have been converted into a museum to Vincent van Gogh, who stayed the ...

mental asylum at Saint-Rémy near

Arles Arles (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Arle ; Classical la, Arelate) is a coastal city and commune in the South of France, a subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in the former province of ...

, France, where Van Gogh was voluntarily a patient from May 1889 to May 1890. The works were inspired by the view from the window at the asylum towards the

Alpilles The Chaîne des Alpilles is a small range of low mountains in Provence, southern France, located about south of Avignon. Geography The range is an extension of the much larger Luberon range. Although it is not high - some 498 m (1,634 ...

mountains.

Description

The painting depicts golden fields of ripe wheat, a dark fastigiate Provençal

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 ...

towering like a green obelisk to the right and lighter green

olive tree The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' 'M ...

s in the middle distance, with hills and mountains visible behind, and white clouds swirling in an azure sky above. The first version (F717) was painted in late June or early July 1889, during a period of frantic painting and shortly after Van Gogh completed ''

The Starry Night ''The Starry Night'' ( nl, De sterrennacht) is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Proven ...

'', at a time when he was fascinated by the cypress. It is likely to have been painted "

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 ...

", near the subject, when Van Gogh was able to leave the precincts of the asylum. Van Gogh regarded this work as one of his best summer paintings. In 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, ...

, written on 2 July 1889, Vincent described the painting: "I have a canvas of cypresses with some ears of wheat, some poppies, a blue sky like a piece of

Scotch plaid Tartan ( gd, breacan ) is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Sc ...

; the former painted with a thick impasto like the Monticelli's, and the wheat field in the sun, which represents the extreme heat, very thick too." Van Gogh had to take time off painting in order to deal with some severe problems due to mental illness in late July and early August, but was able to resume painting in late August and early September 1889. After making a reed-pen drawing of the work, now held by the

Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum () is a Dutch art museum dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in the Museum Square in Amsterdam South, close to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Concertgebouw. The museum opened on ...

in Amsterdam, he copied the composition twice in oils in his studio, one approximately the same size (F615) and a smaller version (F743). The larger studio version was probably painted in a single sitting, with a few minor later adjustments adding touches of yellow and brown. Van Gogh sketched out the design with

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

underdrawing Underdrawing is a preparatory drawing done on a painting ground before paint is applied, for example, an imprimatura or an underpainting. Underdrawing was used extensively by 15th century painters like Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden. These ...

; he applied thin paint on the cypress trees and sky, with the ground allowed to show in places, and thick

impasto ''Impasto'' is a technique used in painting, where paint is laid on an area of the surface thickly, usually thick enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas. When dry, impasto provide ...

for the foreground wheat and the clouds above. Characteristically, he preferred the brilliant white of

zinc white Zinc oxide is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is a white powder that is insoluble in water. ZnO is used as an additive in numerous materials and products including cosmetics, food supplements, rubbers, plastics, ceramics, glass, cement ...

(zinc oxide) for the white clouds rather than

lead white White lead is the basic lead carbonate 2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2. It is a complex salt, containing both carbonate and hydroxide ions. White lead occurs naturally as a mineral, in which context it is known as hydrocerussite, a hydrate of cerussite. It was ...

, despite its poor drying qualities, with his palette also including

cobalt blue Cobalt blue is a blue pigment made by sintering cobalt(II) oxide with aluminum(III) oxide (alumina) at 1200 °C. Chemically, cobalt blue pigment is cobalt(II) oxide-aluminium oxide, or cobalt(II) aluminate, CoAl2O4. Cobalt blue is lighter ...

for the sky, shades of

chrome yellow __NOTOC__ Chrome yellow is a yellow pigment in paints using monoclinic lead(II) chromate (PbCrO4). It occurs naturally as the mineral crocoite but the mineral ore itself was never used as a pigment for paint. After the French chemist Louis Va ...

for the wheat field,

viridian Viridian is a blue-green pigment, a hydrated chromium(III) oxide, of medium saturation and relatively dark in value. It is composed of a majority of green, followed by blue. Specifically, it is a shade of spring green, which places the color b ...

and

emerald green Varieties of the color green may differ in hue, chroma (also called saturation or intensity) or lightness (or value, tone, or brightness), or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint b ...

for the bushes and cypresses, and touches of

vermilion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since ancient history, antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its correspondi ...

for the poppies in the foreground and also synthetic

ultramarine Ultramarine is a deep blue color pigment which was originally made by grinding lapis lazuli into a powder. The name comes from the Latin ''ultramarinus'', literally 'beyond the sea', because the pigment was imported into Europe from mines in Afgh ...

.Vincent van Gogh, A Wheatfield with Cypresses
illustrated pigment analysis at ColourLex The July "plein air" version was much more heavily worked, and may be considered a study for the more considered September studio painting. He sent the smaller and less accomplished studio version to his mother and sister as a gift. Vincent sent the larger July and September versions to his brother in Paris later in September 1889. The July version was sold by Theo's widow in 1900 to artist

Émile Schuffenecker Claude-Émile Schuffenecker (8 December 1851 – 31 July 1934) was a French Post-Impressionist artist, painter, art teacher and art collector. A friend of Paul Gauguin and Odilon Redon, and one of the first collectors of works by Vincent van ...

. It passed through the hands of collector

Alexandre Berthier Alexandre Berthier (1638–1708) was a captain in the French army who was born Isaac Berthier and a Huguenot. He became known as Alexandre after his arrival in New France in 1665. The name change appears to be because of his conversion to the Ro ...

and art dealer

Paul Cassirer Paul Cassirer (21 February 1871, in Görlitz – 7 January 1926, in Berlin) was a German art dealer and editor who played a significant role in the promotion of the work of artists of the Berlin Secession and of French Impressionists and Post-Im ...

in Paris, where it was first exhibited and photographed at Galerie Eugène Druet in November 1909. It was sold to banker Franz von Mendelssohn (1865–1935) in Berlin in 1910 and remained with the Mendelssohn family in Germany and Switzerland until it was sold to industrialist Emil Bührle in Zurich in 1952. His son, Dieter Bührle, bought the painting in 1993, and subsequently donated it to the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York, for $57 million using funds donated by publisher, diplomat and philanthropist

Walter Annenberg Walter Hubert Annenberg (March 13, 1908 – October 1, 2002) was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and diplomat. Annenberg owned and operated Triangle Publications, which included ownership of ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' ...

. The

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

in London holds a similar version painted in Van Gogh's studio in September 1889, bought with the Courtauld Fund in 1923. It is unlined, and was never varnished or waxed. The third smaller version is held by a private collection (sold at

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

in London in 1970; in the US in 1987). Van Gogh - Weizenfeld mit Zypressen2.jpeg, Reed-pen drawing, held by the

in Amsterdam (F1538) Van Gogh - Weizenfeld mit Zypressen4.jpeg, Small version in a private collection, by (F743), September 1889

Footnotes

References

National Gallery entry

Metropolitan Museum of Art entry

Vincent Van Gogh's ''A Cornfield, with Cypresses''
John Leighton, Anthony Reeve, Ashok Roy and Raymond White, ''National Gallery Technical Bulletin'', 1987, Volume 11, pp 42–59.

''New York Times'', 25 May 1993

External links

Vincent van Gogh, ''A Wheatfield with Cypresses''
ColourLex {{DEFAULTSORT:Wheatfield with Cypresses 1889 paintings Landscape paintings Paintings by Vincent van Gogh Paintings of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence by Vincent van Gogh Collections of the National Gallery, London Paintings in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Farming in art

Description

See also

Footnotes

References

External links