The Wheatfields, Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent spent many sunny afternoons painting the gorgeous golden wheatfields surrounding Arles.

He had been interested in the lives of ordinary people ever since his days as a young artist, when he spent time among miners in the Borinage and peasants in rural Holland.

Vincent’s paintings of the wheatfields allow for a look at the environment and seasonal rhythms of the people around Arles. 

In the spring, we have quiet farmhouses and green fields of unripe wheat, strewn with poppies or irises.

Then, in the summer, the wheat turns golden, and labourers populate the fields for the harvest, working under the deep blue midday sky until evening.