Editing Vincent van Gogh (section)

==== Wheat fields ====
{{See also|Wheat Fields (Van Gogh series)|The Wheat Field}}
[[File:Vincent van Gogh - Wheatfield under thunderclouds - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|''[[Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds]]'', 1890, [[Van Gogh Museum]], Amsterdam, Netherlands|alt= An expansive painting of a wheatfield, with green hills through the centre underneath dark and forbidding skies.]]

Van Gogh made several painting excursions during visits to the landscape around Arles. He made paintings of harvests, wheat fields and other rural landmarks of the area, including ''The Old Mill'' (1888); a good example of a picturesque structure bordering the wheat fields beyond.{{sfnp|Pickvance|1984|loc= 177}} At various points, Van Gogh painted the view from his window – at The Hague, Antwerp, and Paris. These works culminated in ''[[The Wheat Field]]'' series, which depicted the view from his cells in the asylum at Saint-Rémy.{{sfnp|Hulsker|1980|loc=390–394}}

Many of the late paintings are sombre but essentially optimistic and, right up to the time of Van Gogh's death, reflect his desire to return to lucid mental health. Yet some of his final works reflect his deepening concerns.{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=283}}{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 680–686}} Writing in July 1890, from Auvers, Van Gogh said that he had become absorbed "in the immense plain against the hills, boundless as the sea, delicate yellow".{{sfnp|Edwards|1989|loc=115}}

Van Gogh was captivated by the fields in May when the wheat was young and green. His ''Wheatfields at Auvers with White House'' shows a more subdued palette of yellows and blues, which creates a sense of idyllic harmony.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 654}}

About 10 July 1890, Van Gogh wrote to Theo of "vast fields of wheat under troubled skies".{{refn|{{harvp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let898/letter.html Letter 898]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh and Jo van Gogh-Bonger. Auvers-sur-Oise, on or about Thursday, 10 July 1890.}}}} ''[[Wheatfield with Crows]]'' shows the artist's state of mind in his final days; Hulsker describes the work as a "doom-filled painting with threatening skies and ill-omened crows".{{sfnp|Hulsker|1990|loc=478–479}} Its dark palette and heavy brushstrokes convey a sense of menace.{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 680}}

<gallery widths="165px" heights="135px" class="center">
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 007.jpg|alt= A bright squarish painting of a wheatfield, a river, houses, mountains and the rising sun.|''Enclosed Wheat Field with Rising Sun'', May 1889, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh, Dutch - Rain - Google Art Project.jpg|alt= A squarish painting of a wheatfield in a dense pouring rain.|''[[Rain (Van Gogh)|Rain]]'' or ''Enclosed Wheat Field in the Rain'', November 1889, [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]], [[Philadelphia]]
File:Landscape with Wheat Sheaves and Rising Moon (F735).jpg|alt= A squarish painting of a darkened wheatfield of stacks, with a river and mountains in the background under a rising full moon.|''[[Wheat Fields]]'', early June 1889. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
File:Vincent van Gogh - House at Auvers - Google Art Project.jpg|alt= A squarish painting of a wheatfield, in the afternoon, with landscape and a white house in the background.|''Wheat Field at Auvers with White House'', June 1890, [[The Phillips Collection]], Washington D.C.
</gallery>