Wheat Fields: The Plain of Auvers

Catalogue numbers: F 775, JH 2038.

For this painting van Gogh chose a rather unusual, double squared format to grasp the essential features of the cornfields surrounding Auvers. It was perhaps the works of Daubigny, working a lot in Auvers and highly esteemed by van Gogh, that inspired him to try this decorative, frieze-like format, since Daubigny enjoyed using canvases of similar proportions.

Van Gogh envisaged this painting as part of a greater, decorative ensemble. Van Gogh suggested a painting of the same size but of upright format, depicting Marguerite Gachet sitting by the piano (F 772) as its pendant. The painting in Vienna is part of a cycle where van Gogh tried to grasp the places characteristic of the rural landscape (fields, roads, haystacks, forests, gardens) as well as the typical natural phenomena (rain, storm, sunset). He envisaged complementing them with square canvases portraying children.