Wheat Field with Cypresses

A tall cypress tree rises dark green against a sky full of churning blue motion, with golden wheat stretching across the foreground and pale blue mountains fading into the distance. This oil on canvas was painted by Vincent van Gogh in 1889 and is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, having entered the collection through a purchase supported by foundation funding. Van Gogh is known for his painting Wheat Field with Cypresses, the very work shown here. Worth noticing is the contrast between the thick, curling brushstrokes of the sky and the more orderly, upright lines forming the wheat below, giving the whole scene a sense of restless energy balanced against the stillness of the cypress and distant hills.