Van Gogh on doing things in love

Wheatfield with Crows (galeriemontblanc.com)

“It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.”

~ Vincent van Gogh

At the end of his life, Van Gogh moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, where he rented a small room at the Ravoux Inn. Through his brother Theo, he met Dr. Paul Gachet, a friend of the painters Cézanne and Pissarro, who took care of him. Shortly before, he had been committed to a mental institution in Saint-Rémy de Provence. But his old existential demons had not left him and were expressed more than ever in his works. Vincent Van Gogh painted Wheatfield with Crows in July 1890, a few days before his death. The work depicts a rural landscape in which the tawny, ochre colours of a field criss-crossed by dirt paths and grass contrast with the dark blue of a stormy sky at dusk. The scene perhaps foreshadows the torments to which the artist is prey, and the very schematic representation of the crows seems to conceal the message of a fatal premonition.

Date of the work : 1890
Original dimensions : 50,5 × 100,5 cm
Place of conservation : Musée Van Gogh, Amsterdam, Netherlands

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