Green Wheat Field with Cypress
By Vincent van Gogh
Simone Ruiter
T2B
03/05/2012
Introduction
For this assignment of arts I could choose a painting myself, but it had to be by Vincent van Gogh. I have chosen the painting titled ´Green wheat field with cypresses´. The painting is made by Vincent van Gogh in the year 1889. I have chosen this painting, because it is the painting which I am drawing at this very moment as an assignment of art, too. There are several reasons why I like this painting.
First of all, it reminds me of the spring due to all of the green in this painting. Personally, the spring is my favourite season. I think it is worth remembering all those green out of the painting.
Secondly, I like the small house in the back of the painting. I think it is the kind of house where a grandmother could live and where everybody is welcome.
Finally, I think it is just beautifully painted.
About Vincent van Gogh
In 1880 he got impressed by the painters Rembrandt and Millet and he started drawing. One year later he got painting lessons from his nephew Anton Mauve. In the next ten years he made all of his paintings. He dreamed of being in an artist’s group. He wanted to gather people around him and his friend Paul Gauguin, but nobody wanted in a group with them. They used both the specific trend in art called post-impressionism. This was a major art event at this time. Actually, Vincent van Gogh did belong to an artist’s group; the post-impressionists. They all experimented with impressionism, but they didn’t have the same subjects, or the same characteristics. In the beginning of this period he had a wife, Christine Hoornik. However, she was an alcoholic and a prostitute and they broke up. She got a son in 1882, but it is never proved to be from Vincent van Gogh. On 29 July 1890, aged 37, Vincent died in Auvers-sur-Oise. They think that he has commit suicide by shooting himself in his chest, but this is never proved.From top to bottom, about one third of the painting is the sky. The sky is bright blue with a lot of sharp white spots (clouds). On the left side, in the middle of the air, there are three big, bold clouds. The clouds are white with stripes in the same blue colour of the sky in which they are. Underneath the bright blue sky there is a little haze of dark blue sky. Beneath this haze, there is dark green shrubbery spread all over the painting. Left, just slightly away from the edge, there is a big bunch of plants, which are almost touching the three clouds. In the middle of the shrubbery, actually a little bit to the left, there is a big cypress. This three is dark green with black spots and it is as high as the top of the painting. Between the cypress and the right edge of the painting, hidden between the shrubberies, there is a little white house with a yellow roof. You see the house from the side. I have two windows and it consists of two parts; the left part is a low rectangle and the right part is a high square. The shrubbery around the house is as high as the house. In front of the row shrubbery there is a large wheat field spread across the whole painting. This wheat field is light green with yellow and has in the middle a lot of white dots. Personally, I think this is a nice feature of this painting; it is everywhere as busy as on other places. Like, in the middle it is less busy while in the back there are lots of detailed things. In the left bottom until the middle of the height of the painting and until the middle of the length of the painting there are dark green plants. Some stalks of the wheat stick out of this plants and one of them reaches almost the cypress. In the left bottom there is a little middle green shrubbery with black stripes.
I think that Van Gogh painted abstract, because of the dots he used. In reality everything is not made from dots of course. However, I think it is also painted realistic, because it looks real when you look at it from a distance. That is why I personally think that he used two ways of painting.
A closer look at the painting
Vincent van Gogh made the painting ‘green wheat field with cypress’ on canvass. This is a painting cloth. He made the painting with oil paint, a coloured powder which is mixed with vegetable oil to keep the powder together.
My opinion about the painting
Personally, I like the painting very much. I love the fact that it is not too busy. There are a lot of detailed things in the back, but in the middle it is a large wheat field. This makes the things in the back more special. One disadvantage of the painting is, according to me, the three white stripes in the halfway up on the right, underneath the shrubbery. I cannot see what they used to be or why he has drawn them. Moreover, I would like it when he had painted the shrubbery with the same amount of details and different colours than he has painted the cypress. Still, I think Vincent van Gogh has done a good job, owning to the fact that it looks so real, why he has drawn it with all those little stripes. I think those little stripes make it very hard to be able to paint realistic. To sum up, I think the painting is beautiful and if I have to give it a grade I would give it a nine, because I really think it is wonderful, but I have got a few disadvantages. It is still very good, though.
I think other people should see this painting, too. It gives me a feeling that it is spring, which makes my happy. So, I hope other people will get this feeling as well.
If I would own the painting ‘green wheat field with cypress’, I would probably not want to give it away or sell it to a museum. However, I think the whole world must be able to enjoy this painting, so I would hang it up in my own house, in front of a window with the front side to the window. Than everybody can see it, it does not get dirty and when I want to look at it I just have to turn the painting.
Conclusion
I enjoyed to search out more about the painting ‘green wheat field with cypresses´. Owning to the fact that I am drawing it at this moment I was really interested in this painting and I have taken a closer look at the painting.
List of resources
Book
- Bijbel met impressies, Vincent van Gogh en zijn tijdgenoten – Jan L.J, Kappers – 2007
Websites
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