First Blog Post - Abigail Williamson

 Art Analysis of van Gogh’s Wheat Field with Cypresses by Abigail Williamson

             

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch impressionist painter in the 1800s. Although his work did not gain much notoriety until after his death, his art is now recognized as some of the best of its time. One of his more than 900 paintings is called Wheat Field with Cypresses (Shinn-Morris). After living for two years in Paris, developing his use of color and style, van Gogh began to grow tired of city life and set off for the countryside (Vincent's). In June of 1889, van Gogh began his first series of paintings in Saint-Rémy focused on the area's distinctive cypress trees (Wheat). Wheat Field with Cypresses in a 28 7/8 × 36 3/4 in. oil painting on canvas is the first work that he made of nature with this composition (Wheat). The work, such as this, that van Gogh made while living in the south of Frances countryside symbolizes the end of an era in his work as it was after this year that his mental health took a sharp decline which led to his hospitalization (Vincent's).

I can understand van Gogh’s desire to get away from the city to explore new places as I have only lived in places for three years at a time and once that time begins to approach, I start to feel the itch to leave for somewhere new. I would love to own a copy of this painting or ever try recreating it at some point to try to understand van Gogh’s creative prosses. More of van Gogh’s paintings should be displayed in public places because I believe their swirling patterns and soft colors create a dream-like sense of wonder that people from all walks of life can enjoy. 

There are many elements that contribute to my enjoyment of this painting.  First, the composition is very pleasing in the way that the shape of the mountains leads the viewer's eye to the largest cypress tree which then brings the eye to the clouds whose swirling motion brings your eye back down to the mountains and wheat field which guide you back to the cypresses.  This composition creates a great circular line of motion that helps contribute to the enjoyment of the painting. Van Gogh developed a very distinctive style over his career that included his use of small brush strokes. This is evident in the painting and creates a beautiful texture that gives the work some natural depth. This texture also contributes to the flowy, swirling pattern evident throughout the image that gives the work a sense of unity. Another aspect I enjoy is van Gogh’s use of color in this painting. The warm yellow of the wheat fields and highlights on the trees create an element of contrast combined with the cool blues that dominate the rest of the painting. although the painting does contain contrasting warm ad cool colors their tones are kept at very similar levels which creates cohesiveness throughout the image. Finally, by having light blue dominate most of this painting's space van Gogh creates a sense of peace and calm.  Emotions of sadness are kept away from this very cool piece by yellow being the other color in the work that occupies the most space bringing feelings of joy to the picture and keeping away thoughts of melancholy.  

Regarding flaws or elements of this painting that I don’t enjoy there are very few aspects that I don’t find pleasing. I would like it if there was another, much smaller cypress on the far left of the painting as I feel that the image is a bit right-heavy composition-wise. Additionally, if the smaller cypress tree that is in the image were slightly lighter in color, I feel that that would help to have them read as two trees rather than one big one with a small gap at the base. The last thing that I might critique is that I would love to see more of the yellow in the sky, which seems to represent sunlight, carried threw the sky to help carry the yellow throughout the painting and make it seem more deliberate.  

 

 

Work Cited

 Shinn-Morris, Leonie “10 Things You Might Not Know About Van Gogh,” Google Arts and Culture, https://artsandculture.google.com/story/10-things-you-might-not-know-about-vincent-van-gogh/agLStrYjblBRKA. Accessed 3, February 2023.

“Wheat Field with Cypresses,” The MET, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436535. Accessed 3, February 2023.

“Vincent's Life,” Van Gough Museum, https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/art-and-stories/vincents-life-1853-1890. Accessed 3, February 2023.