Flower Beds in Holland

A stretch of countryside in Holland unfolds with thatched cottages set among wide beds of flowers in white, pink, yellow, and blue, all beneath a sky heavy with clouds. The painting, made in 1883, is rendered in oil on canvas on wood and is held today at the National Gallery of Art. It came into the collection from Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon. The work was painted by Vincent van Gogh, an artist whose paintings helped shape the course of modern art. One detail worth lingering on is the way the rows of blossoms break up the flat land into bands of color, drawing the eye from the foreground cottages back toward the low horizon and the heavy gray sky above.