Paysage au crépuscule

Van Gogh painted this in June 1890, a few weeks before his death, in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise just north of Paris. He described it to his brother Theo as an evening effect, two dark pear trees against a yellowing sky, with the chateau of Auvers set back in violet shadow. The long, wide shape was his own idea. He had begun cutting canvases into a double-square about a metre across, and made 13 of them in these final weeks, this one probably the first. The format let him stretch the land out sideways, the way the eye travels along a horizon at dusk. He was living quietly under the care of Dr. Gachet, working at a pace that produced roughly a painting a day.