Wheatfield with Crows

A closer look

Three paths, one red and two green, cut through the wheat and end abruptly, leading nowhere. The wide, low format, almost twice as wide as it is tall, stretches the field into a panorama. The brushstrokes are rapid and agitated, and the contrast of yellow and deep blue is intense. Because Van Gogh died a few weeks later, the painting was long called his last work and read as a farewell. In fact he painted several canvases after it, and in a letter he described such fields as expressing both sadness and the healthy, strengthening power of the countryside.