Wheat Field with Cypresses

By late June 1889, cypresses had become a central motif in Vincent van Gogh’s work, as he committed one of his first Saint-Rémy series to these towering forms. Distinguished by its rich impasto and sweeping horizontal composition, this painting belongs to Van Gogh’s exuberant studies painted directly from nature and documented in reed-pen drawings sent to his brother on July 2. The artist regarded the work as one of his finest summer landscapes, a conviction that led him that September to produce two studio versions, one of equal scale now in the National Gallery, London, and a smaller replica created as a gift for his mother and sister.