Vincent Van Gogh, Wheatfield with Crows, 1890

Mini intro

Date: 1890

Artist: Vincent Van Gogh

Size: 50×103 cm

Medium: oil on canvas

Style: Post-Impressionism

Key facts (4)

Claimed to be Van Gogh’s last painting before suicide

Van Gogh suffered from psychotic episodes

He severed part of his own left ear after a disagreement

He spent time at psychiatric hospitals including, Saint-Rémy, then to Auberge Ravous in Auvers-sur-oise

Composition (3)

High horizon line removes atmosphere and creates claustrophobic scene

Balanced and relatively symmetrical composition which creates a sense of harmony

Aerial perspective and recession though reduction of scale - birds get smaller and less clear as they get further into background

Painting style (6)

Diagonal lines created by use of directional brushstrokes creates a sense of dynamism and movement

Simplified forms of birds references a primitive painting style (influence from French colonisation of Africa in art)

High intensity and rushed

Thick brushstrokes don’t highlight strong silhouettes, making forms seem fluid, soft, distorted and non-naturalistic

tonal modelling - sense of depth

Impasto of thick visible brushstrokes add texture and effect, also reflecting the light creating a 3D surface (middle left composition)

Materials and techniques (3)

Painted en plein air directly onto canvas - aided by J. G. Rand’s invention of the premixed paint tube in 1841

Bright vibrant colours are used to attract the viewer’s attention - man-made pigments

Pigments used chrome yellow, chrome orange, emerald green, cadmium yellow, geranium, Prussian blue, black and Van Dyck brown

Subject matter (7)

Landscape painting of a field in Auvers, outskirts of Paris

Depicts a dramatic cloudy sky with crows flying over a wheatfield split into a fork with three paths leading to place outside of picture plane

Dark sky - gloomy and ominous

2 light sources in painting but no shadows over field

ambiguous forms - are the light sources clouds or moons

Contrast between bright colours, such as chrome yellow and Prussian blue - disorientating

unusual use of white ground with areas left bare made colours brighter and more startling