Wheat Field with Crows

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Wheat Field with Crows
Vincent van Gogh, 1890
Oil on canvas
50.5 × 103.0 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Main article: Vincent van Gogh

Wheat Field with Crows was painted in July 1890. It is commonly and mistakenly believed that this was Van Gogh's last painting, or even that he shot himself while he was painting it: this is how it was portrayed in the film Lust for Life. However, there is no evidence to support this idea, and Dr. Jan Hulsker's chronology gives seven works following it.


A usual interpretation of this painting is that it shows Van Gogh's troubled state of mind with a dark, forbidding sky, the indecision of three paths going in different directions and the black crows overhead being signs of foreboding or even death.

The artist wrote that he had made three paintings in Auvers of large fields of wheat under troubled skies.

Van Gogh did indeed commit suicide in the same month that he painted this picture. It is generally agreed that he went for a walk in the fields on the evening of July 27, 1890, and shot himself with a revolver, then made his way back home. He was in bed for two days before he died, with his brother Theo at his side.

This painting is in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

[edit] References

  • Ingo F. Walther and Rainer Metzger, Van Gogh: the Complete Paintings, 1997, Benedikt Taschen ISBN 3-8228-8265-8

[edit] External links

Vincent van Gogh
General: The Artist | Chronology | Medical condition | Posthumous fame | Post-Impressionism | Theo van Gogh | Paul Gachet | Paul Gauguin | Van Gogh Museum | Cultural depictions

Groups and series of works: The Décoration for the Yellow House | The Roulin Family | Display at Les XX, 1890 | Auvers size 30 canvases | Auvers Double-squares and Squares
Paintings: List of works | Self-Portraits | Sunflowers | The Potato Eaters | Bedroom in Arles | The Red Vineyard | The Night Café | The Yellow House | The Starry Night | Irises | The Church at Auvers | Wheat Field with Crows | Cafe Terrace at Night | Portrait of Dr. Gachet | Thatched Cottages by a Hill

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