Getty Museum
Arles: View from the Wheatfields
Creator
Vincent van GoghDutch Artist · 1853–1890
All works by this person →> I can very well do without God both in my life and in my paintings, but I cannot, ill as I am, do without something which is greater than I, which is my life--the power to create. > > --Vincent van Gogh Art was Van Gogh's means of personal, spiritual redemption, and his voluminous letters to his devoted brother Theo, one of which is quoted here, offer profound insight into the artistic struggle.
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1888
- Medium
- Reed and quill pens and brown ink
- Culture
- Dutch
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Vincent van Gogh made this drawing in varied hues of golden brown ink as a study of a painting. The vertical composition, whereby forms grow smaller and denser as the eye moves up, leads the eye across the stubble of a newly cut wheat field framed by gathered stacks of wheat. In the center, a man scythes a section of the field while a woman bundles cut wheat under her arm. The background shifts to the cityscape of Arles, where churches and densely packed houses stretch across the horizon. A railroad train and factories churning smoke into the sky signal the dawn of the machine world and its effect on traditional ways of life. This drawing embodies many of the characteristic features of van Gogh's work: remarkably varied graphic strokes, a subject matter that comments on the human condition, a golden glow that suggests the warm light of southern France, and a balanced yet dynamic composition.
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