Wheat Fields after the Rain

In May 1890 Van Gogh left the south and settled at Auvers-sur-Oise, a village north of Paris, under the eye of Doctor Gachet, who looked after nervous patients. He had two months left. This is the plain above the village after rain, which he described to his brother as boundless as the ocean, delicate yellow and soft green and the purple of freshly turned earth. He painted it in the wide double-square format he was using that summer for the open country. The fields break into a zig-zag patchwork of small strokes, a cart track and a few roofs the only signs that anyone works this land.