Landscape at Saint-Rémy (Enclosed Field with Peasant)

Vincent van Gogh

Oil on canvas

Indianapolis Museum of Art

Painted around October 12, 1889, this oil on canvas depicts a ploughed field near the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, with a lone peasant carrying a bundle of wheat, a lilac bush, scattered buildings, and the rugged peaks of the Alpilles mountains rising dramatically behind. The composition is dominated by broken violet and lilac tones across the furrowed terrain, animated by Van Gogh's characteristic dynamic brushwork and rich impasto surface. Created en plein air over several days during his voluntary confinement at the asylum, the work belongs to a celebrated series of enclosed wheat field paintings Van Gogh executed from the grounds of Saint-Paul. A Dutch Post-Impressionist of extraordinary emotional intensity, Van Gogh produced this canvas during one of the most productive yet turbulent periods of his life, and described it to both his brother Theo and fellow painter Émile Bernard in letters written in October 1889.