Green Wheat Fields, Auvers

Well, if you don't like green paintings, please switch today to another artwork!

In May 1889, following a period of mental illness, Van Gogh voluntarily entered the asylum at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Rémy. A year later, seeking a change and a fresh start, he moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, a village just north of Paris. He would remain there for two months, producing an extraordinary body of work before his death by suicide in July 1890.

Painted during these final months, Green Wheat Fields, Auvers reflects Van Gogh’s renewed connection to the northern countryside. In Auvers, he turned his attention to the Romanesque church, the town hall, and thatched-roof cottages, but he also created several landscapes free from overt narrative. This painting is one such "pure" landscape: no figures, no buildings—just field, road, and sky. The grasses ripple in the wind, painted in sweeping strokes of greens and blues, punctuated by flashes of yellow blossoms. Two-thirds of the composition is devoted to the vibrant wheat field, capturing nature in motion.

For Van Gogh, the move north was something of a homecoming. The blazing, saturated tones of the south gave way to cooler, more calming hues. In today's painting, his energetic brushwork animates the surface with rhythmic movement, especially where the field meets the road and sky—a point of tenuous stillness in an otherwise swirling composition. Overhead, the clouds turn in soft turbulence, echoing the dynamism below. It is so calm and vital!

P.S. Take a tour through 5 iconic Van Gogh paintings of nature! Aren't they spectacular?