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Wheatfield with Crows, 1890

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
  • Oil on Canvas, 50.5 X 103 cm
  • Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
    (Vincent van Gogh Stichting)
  • F 779

Wheatfield with Crows is one of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings and probably the one most subject to speculation. It was executed in July 1890, in the last weeks of Van Gogh’s life. Many have claimed it was his last work, seeing the dramatic, cloudy sky filled with crows and the cut-off path as obvious portents of his coming end. However, since no letters are known from the period immediately preceding his death, we can only guess what his final work might really have been. Some scholars believe it was the Tree-roots, but we have no proof that this was the case.

More information about "Wheatfield with Crows"

Symbolic Wheatfields

In Auvers, Van Gogh painted a large number of landscapes with wheatfields, all on unusual, elongated canvases (50 x 100 cm). He wrote to Theo about two of these works: “They depict vast, distended wheatfields under angry skies, and I deliberately tried to express sadness and extreme loneliness in them.” But these pictures also had a positive side: “I am almost certain that these canvases illustrate what I cannot express in words, that is, how healthy and reassuring I find the countryside.” Was this also true of the Wheatfield with Crows? Unfortunately, this will probably always remain a mystery.
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