Harvest in Provence

Vincent van Gogh

Oil on canvas

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Painted in Arles in June 1888, Harvest in Provence (Ernte in der Provence) depicts a sunlit agricultural landscape of the south of France, with golden sheaves of grain bundled across a broad field, vigorous rhythmic brushstrokes articulating the stubble of reaped wheat, and vivid contrasts of bright yellow against deep blues and greens on the horizon. The work exemplifies van Gogh's Post-Impressionist mastery: bold, expressive color and energetic mark-making used not to describe but to evoke the heat, labor, and abundance of the Provençal summer. Van Gogh, a Dutch-born artist who arrived in Arles in February 1888, produced this canvas during one of the most extraordinarily fertile periods of his career, in which he sought the intense southern light he associated with Japanese woodblock prints. The painting is held in the permanent collection of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.