Wheat Field

In the spring of 1888 Van Gogh left Paris for Arles, in the south of France, worn down by the noise of the capital. By June the wheat around the town was ripening toward harvest, and he threw himself at it, painting a run of wheat-field views in a matter of weeks. This is one of them. He set the horizon high so the ripe crop fills most of the canvas in yellows, and pushed the blue of the sky and the far hills of the Alpilles harder than nature to make that yellow burn. He worked quickly and outdoors, the paint laid down in short, separate strokes. The painting has been on long-term loan to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, far from the field where it was made.