"Wheat Field with Cypresses" is a post-impressionist oil painting created by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh in September 1889. It was created during his stay at the psychiatric institution Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in the French town of Saint-Rémy near Arles. It is one of three very similar versions, of which van Gogh originally gave two to his brother Theo. The version pictured here was bought in 1923 by the National Gallery in London, the second one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the third in a private collection.

Vincent van Gogh suffered in the last years of his life from severe psychotic episodes, which led in May 1889 to his self-referral to the psychiatric institution Saint-Paul-de-Mausole. In July and September of the same year he painted two of the versions of "wheat field with cypresses" after a scenic motif in the immediate vicinity of the facility. It is likely that he first made a pen and ink drawing locally, which is now in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. In his studio in Saint-Paul-de-Mausole he then sketched the composition with charcoal on canvas and finally finished the painting with oil paint.

Van Gogh painted the world after the impression she made on him. His psychological condition therefore had a not inconsiderable influence on his style. Bright, particularly bright colors can, for example, suggest a positive but slightly manic state of mind at the time the painting is made. Van Gogh's later style is characterized by a typically impressionistic, light abstraction of natural forms along with a rough brushwork. However, its sweeping lines, bold colors and increasingly clear deviation from reality speak for a beginning transition to Expressionism.

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Wheatfield with Cypresses by Vincent van Gogh. Available as an art print on canvas, photo paper, watercolor board, uncoated paper or Japanese paper.
landscape · impressionist · summer · cypress · green sky · clouds · wheat · crop · field · post-impressionism · nature · National Gallery, London, UK / Bridgeman Images