Wheatfield with crows
Vincent van Gogh. Wheatfield with crows. July 1890. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
For some time i've had Wheatfield with crows by Vincent van Gogh as my wallpaper so I see a simulacron of its brilliance every day. The sight of it makes me happy; but there is a problem. Should it?
Vincent had a poor life, always short of money and failing as a bookseller, teacher, evangelical minister and at pretty much whatever he tried. Even in his late life as an artist he only sold two paintings. In 1886 he moved to Paris and then in February 1898 he arrived in Arles, where the brilliant light of Provence inspired his last two years and left the legacy which we can see today.
Wheatfield with crows was painted in July 1890, probably his last painting, a few days before Vincent walked into a wheatfield and shot himself in the stomach, dying a couple of days later.
The question is: does this painting presage his death? When we look at it we see a cornfield with three tracks starting in the foreground; two lead out of the picture and the third leads straightaway into nothingness. The brilliant yellow of the corn clashes with the changing blues of the sky and the ominous dark clouds loom over the scene. The crows, harbingers of death are moving in. The whole scene looks as though Vincent was foreseeing his suicide, painting the scene ready for him to walk into. He was mentally unstable at this time, had checked himself into an asylum where he painted everything in front of him. He left the asylum and continued to paint. It was in these last two years the he created the brilliant post-impressionist oeuvre that is his legacy. so anything is possible.
P. S. We know much about Vincent's life because after his death his wife published the regular letters he sent to brother Theo.
Posted by This Style 10/6
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