''Enclosed Field with Peasant'' (also known as ''Landscape at Saint-Rémy'' or ''Ploughed field with a man carrying a bundle of straw'', F641, JH1795) is an

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

artist

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

, painted around 12 October 1889. The Size 30 painting, measuring , depicts a scene of a ploughed field near the asylum at

Saint-Rémy-de-Provence Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (; Provençal Occitan: ''Sant Romieg de Provença'' in classical and ''Sant Roumié de Prouvènço'' in Mistralian norms) is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Southern France. L ...

, with a

lilac bush ''Lilac Bush'' (catalogue number : F 579, JH 1692) is a May 1889 oil on canvas painting by Vincent van Gogh, produced during his stay in Saint-Rémy. It is now in the Hermitage Museum. The artist began painting almost as soon as he had arriv ...

, a peasant carrying a wheatsheaf, several buildings, and the

Alpilles The Chaîne des Alpilles is a small range of low mountains in Provence, southern France, located about south of Avignon. Geography The range is an extension of the much larger Luberon range. Although it is not high - some 498 m (1,634 ...

mountains rising behind, with a small patch of sky. Van Gogh considered it a

pendant painting In art, a pendant is one of two paintings, statues, reliefs or other type of works of art intended as a pair. Typically, pendants are related thematically to each other and are displayed in close proximity. For example, pairs of portraits of ma ...

to '' The Reaper'' executed earlier in 1889. It is currently part of the permanent collection at the

Indianapolis Museum of Art The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is an encyclopedic art museum located at Newfields, a campus that also houses Lilly House, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park: 100 Acres, the Gardens at Newfields, the Beer Garden, and more. It ...

Description

''Enclosed Field with Peasant'' is an example of Van Gogh's late work, where his dynamic brush strokes take control of the paintings. The painting's hurried lines accentuate a vibrant, moving field. The painting seems to pulsate with life, even though only one human is shown. It is the most topographically accurate of van Gogh's four views of a wheat field at the base of the

. It was created ''

en plein air ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...

'' over several days, during one of the most tumultuous parts of Van Gogh's life, shortly after he resumed painting after he had voluntarily committed himself to an

asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea ...

in Saint-Rémy. He was recuperating from a

nervous breakdown A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...

he suffered on Christmas Eve in 1888, during a visit with fellow

postimpressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...

Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...

. He described the painting in two letters written in October 1889, one to

Émile Bernard Émile Henri Bernard (28 April 1868 – 16 April 1941) was a French Post-Impressionist painter and writer, who had artistic friendships with Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Eugène Boch, and at a later time, Paul Cézanne. Most of his nota ...

, as "a no. 30 canvas with broken lilac ploughed fields and a background of mountains that go all the way up the canvas; so nothing but rough ground and rocks, with a thistle and dry grass in a corner, and a little violet and yellow man", and another to his brother, Theo van Gogh, as "the same field as the one of the reaper. Now it’s mounds of earth and the background parched lands, then the rocks of the Alpilles. A bit of blue-green sky with small white and violet cloud. In the foreground: A thistle and some dry grass. A peasant dragging a bundle of straw in the middle. It’s another harsh study, and instead of being almost entirely yellow it makes an almost completely violet canvas. Broken and neutral violets … I think that this will complement the reaper and will make it easier to see what it is. For the reaper appears done at random, and this with it will balance it.".

Reception

Van Gogh sent the painting to his brother Theo in January 1890, along with a letter which described it as "''Ploughed Field'', with background of mountains", and again suggested that this violet-toned work could be a

pendant A pendant is a loose-hanging piece of jewellery, generally attached by a small loop to a necklace, which may be known as a "pendant necklace". A pendant earring is an earring with a piece hanging down. Its name stems from the Latin word ' ...

with his yellow-dominated painting of '' The Reaper''. Van Gogh had made a Size 30 version of ''The Reaper'' (also known as ''Wheat Field with Reaper and Sun'', F617) in June 1889, which is now held by the

Kröller-Müller Museum The Kröller-Müller Museum () is a national art museum and sculpture garden, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands. The museum, founded by art collector Helene Kröller-Müller within the extensive grounds of ...

in Otterlo. He also made two similar versions of ''The Reaper'' in September and October 1889: a second Size 30 version (F618) is held by the

Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum () is a Dutch art museum dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in the Museum Square in Amsterdam South, close to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Concertgebouw. The museum opene ...

, and a smaller Size 20 version (F619) held by the

Museum Folkwang Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...

in Essen. ''Enclosed Field with Peasant'' was retained by Theo after Vincent's death later in 1890, and inherited on Theo's own death several months later by his widow,

Johanna van Gogh-Bonger Johanna (Jo) Gezina van Gogh-Bonger (4 October 1862 – 2 September 1925) was a multilingual Dutch editor and translator of the letters of the van Gogh brothers. Sister-in-law of the painter Vincent van Gogh, and wife of his brother Theo van Go ...

. In May 1905, it was bought and then exhibited by the art dealer

Paul Cassirer Paul Cassirer (21 February 1871, in Görlitz – 7 January 1926, in Berlin) was a German art dealer and editor who played a significant role in the promotion of the work of artists of the Berlin Secession and of French Impressionists and Post-Im ...

in Berlin, where it was sold to the German banker . Upon his death in 1917, it was inherited by his wife Giulietta (who was the daughter of Michele Gordigiani); and upon her death in 1955, it was passed to their children, Elenora and Francesco von Mendelssohn, who emigrated to the US in 1935 and 1933 respectively, taking the painting with them. The painting was consigned to Justin Thannhauser in New York, from where it was sold to

Caroline Marmon Fesler Caroline Marmon Fesler (1878 – December 28, 1960) was an American art and music patron, cultural philanthropist, and fine-art collector. Her contributions to the Indianapolis, Indiana, arts community included financial support and gifts of fine ...

. She donated the painting, in memory of Daniel W. Marmon and Elizabeth C. Marmon, to the John Herron Art Institute, now known as the

, in 1944. File:Wheat Field with Reaper and Sun (F617), 1889.jpg, '' Wheat Field with Reaper and Sun'', late June 1889, Oil on canvas,

Otterlo Otterlo is a village in the municipality of Ede of province of Gelderland in the Netherlands, in or near the Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe. The Kröller-Müller Museum, named after Helene Kröller-Müller, is situated nearby and has the world's ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

(F617) File:Vincent van Gogh - Wheatfield with a reaper - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Wheat Field with Reaper'', September 1889,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

(F618) File:Vincent van Gogh - Wheat Field Behind Saint-Paul Hospital with a Reaper - Google Art & Culture.jpg, ''Wheat Field behind Saint-Paul with Reaper'', September 1889,

, Essen (F619) Gogh, Vincent van - Landscape at Saint-Rémy (Enclosed Field with Peasant) - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Landscape at Saint-Rémy (Enclosed Field with Peasant)'', early October 1889,

, Indianapolis,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

(F641)

References

Landscape at Saint-Rémy (Enclosed Field with Peasant)
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Landscape at Saint-Rémy (Enclosed Field with Peasant)
Google Arts & Culture
''Van Gogh in Saint-Rémy and Auvers''
Ronald Pickvance, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986, , p.138
''Vincent Van Gogh: The Years in France: Complete Paintings 1886-1890''
Walter Feilchenfeldt, Philip Wilson Publishers, 2013, , p.216 {{IMAart Paintings in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art Paintings by Vincent van Gogh 1889 paintings Farming in art