Paesaggio con covoni di grano e luna nascente

In May 1889 Van Gogh checked himself into the asylum at Saint-Remy, in the south of France, worn down after the breakdown that had cost him part of his ear. From the window of his room he could see a walled field, and he painted it over and over through the seasons. This is that field at harvest, in July, with sheaves of cut wheat stacked in the foreground and the moon coming up huge and orange over the low Alpilles hills. He laid fine purple strokes across the scene to deepen the night, though that pigment has faded over time and the sky now looks paler than he meant it to. He was not happy with the picture, telling his brother the whole thing felt exaggerated. He worked much of it up indoors, from memory as much as from the view.