A Wheatfield, with Cypresses

The cypresses rise as a dark shape against the bright field and sky. Around them, wheat bends, an olive bush gathers into curves and clouds sweep across the blue. Similar movements pass through very different parts of the landscape. Vincent van Gogh painted this London version in September 1889 while staying at the psychiatric hospital of Saint-Paul de Mausole near Saint-Rémy. He had made an earlier study outdoors in June, now in New York. He developed that first impression into this more finished canvas while confined to his room. The golden crop, evergreen trees and distant Alpilles mountains belong to Provence. Van Gogh wrote about the strong local wind, the mistral, and the lines of the landscape seem animated by it. Compare a stroke in the wheat with one in the sky. Their directions differ, but each describes movement through repeated marks. The painting’s energy comes from that relationship across the surface, rather than from people or an event placed within the view.