Felsen

Van Gogh painted these rocks in the summer of 1888, a few months after leaving grey Paris for Arles in the south of France, chasing stronger light and colour. The spot is Montmajour, a rocky rise a short walk north of the town, where he climbed again and again that season. Working there was miserable: he wrote to his brother Theo about the mistral wind shoving at his easel and the mosquitoes swarming him, though he said a good view made him forget all of it. You can feel the speed in the thick twisting strokes of oak and stone. Theo liked the finished canvas enough to frame it and hang it beside The Sower.