Harvest at La Crau (The Blue Cart)

Catalogue numbers: F 412 JH 1440.

Van Gogh's production in Arles fell into a number of series, one of which comprised landscape paintings on the theme of the seasons. The original idea for a seasonal series, in which each season would be represented by a pair of complementary colours, had been put forward in Nuenen in 1884. On arrival in Arles in March 1888 van Gogh began to paint a series of canvases of blossoming orchards in pinks and greens entitled Spring. In June he painted Summer in blue and orange, represented by the harvest on the plain of La Crau, which lay between Arles and the ruined monastery of Montmajour. The painting is a pendant of the Haystacks in Provence (F 425). It was an important work for van Gogh; he made two preliminary drawings of the motif and when the painting was finished he made two further drawings after it.

In the painting, the viewpoint is high and thus the great plain is laid out beneath us, receding more gradually to the distant towers of Montmajour and the hills beyond. Van Gogh often described the plain of La Crau in his letters, saying that apart from differences of colour it reminded him constantly of Holland, but not of modern Holland. In this landscape he saw the landscape paintings of the seventeenth-century artists Ruisdael and De Koninck, who were both famous for their panoramic landscapes.