Oil Painting and Art

Wheatfield with Crows was painted by Vincent Van Gogh in July 1890. It is among the last paintings he did, though it is not known if it was exactly the last or not. The painting depicts a wheat field against a dark forbidding sky, with crows circle menacingly overhead. The wind is blowing and the weather is getting worse, while the observer is faced with the indecision of three separate paths leading forward. An art reproduction of the painting would look peaceful in any home.

Even with its foreboding nature, though, the painting also shows Van Gogh at the top of his craft. The illustrious use of colors, and the way they pleasingly combine in the painting, add up to make this one of the most beautiful foreboding landscapes in the world of art. The browns and greens of the road mix seamlessly with the yellow wheat and the darker sky to bring about both the sense or danger in the moment, but also an appreciation for the natural beauty of the surroundings.

The painting is usually interpreted to reflect Van Gogh’s troubled state of mind at this time, shortly before he shot himself. The black crows overhead, the forbidding sky and the indecision moving forward are taken as signs of foreboding events to come, even of death. The Wheatfield with Crows can today be found in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.