Wheat Field with Cypresses

Vincent van Gogh painted this landscape in 1889. Try looking at it as three bands. Below is a yellow field; above it are trees and hills; higher still is the sky. Yet none of these bands stays flat. Lines bend, break and continue through neighbouring shapes. Choose a small area of the field. Which way do the brushstrokes travel? Now move your attention to a cloud. The rhythm changes: rounded lines gather into large curls. On the right, dark cypresses connect the earth and sky. Compare their height with the width of the canvas. A strong vertical gives you a point of reference among all those horizontal movements. You do not need to find a secret meaning for every colour. Start with your own experience: where does your gaze speed up, and where does it stop? Follow one route from the bottom edge to the top of a tree, then return through the clouds. The landscape becomes an exercise in looking carefully. This independent educational introduction explores a work in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.