Two Thistles

Van Gogh made this in Arles in August 1888, in the middle of the extraordinary southern summer when he was painting almost faster than he could stretch canvas. It is a small, offhand study, two tall thistles growing on a patch of waste ground by the road. He mentioned them to Theo that month, writing that he had two studies of thistles, white with the fine dust thrown up from the road. There is no grand subject here, only weeds most people would walk past, given the same close attention he was giving the sunflowers and the orchards that season. The jagged leaves and dry stalks stand up sharply against the bare earth.