Wheatfield with Crows

Wheatfield with Crows is an oil on canvas by Vincent van Gogh, painted in July 1890, during the final weeks of his life in Auvers-sur-Oise. For a long time it was regarded as his last painting, though art historians are not entirely sure of this. His letters suggest it was finished around 10 July, and some scholars propose other canvases as later, such as Tree Roots or Daubigny's Garden. What survives is a letter in which Van Gogh described three large canvases made in Auvers after a visit to Paris, two of them wheatfields beneath turbulent skies and a third of Daubigny's garden. In the same letter he spoke of a deep sadness, describing it as "extreme loneliness", yet he also said the fields seemed to him a healthy, strengthening landscape.

The composition is simple and taut. A dark, restless sky fills much of the format, and the wheat, pushed by the wind, covers nearly two thirds of the surface. A central path runs toward the distance and seems to lead nowhere, while crows scatter in uncertain directions. This ambiguity in flight and route heightens the sense of isolation. The contrast between the red of the track and the green of the vegetation gives the picture a colour force that the painter turned into feeling rather than description.

The symbolism of the crows has been much debated. Van Gogh associated them with death and, at times, with the idea of rebirth. the critic Kathleen Erickson suggested the path might recall a sermon the artist had given, inspired by Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, in which the traveller presses on, weary but hopeful of reaching a final goal. The reference to Jules Michelet, an author Van Gogh admired, helps explain the attentive gaze he attributed to these birds.

The work is held at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and is today one of the most recognisable images of the closing chapter of his career, although its exact place in the chronology remains open to debate.

Painter

Vincent van Gogh

Date

1890

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

50 × 103 cm

Museum

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Movement

Post-impressionism

Genre

landscape painting

Depicts

raven, field, sky

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