Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds

1890 painting by Vincent van Gogh

Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds (in Dutch, Korenveld onder onweerslucht) (F778, JH2097) is an 1890 oil painting by Vincent van Gogh. The painting measures 50.4 cm × 101.3 cm (19.8 in × 39.9 in). It depicts a relatively flat and featureless landscape with fields of green wheat, under a foreboding dark blue sky with a few heavy white clouds. The horizon divides the work almost into two, with shades of green and yellow below and shades of blue and white above. Since 1973 it has been on permanent loan to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

This very late work was painted in early July 1890, just a few weeks before Van Gogh's death. It was one of several paintings of wheat fields that he made in Auvers-sur-Oise, in an unusually elongated double-square format: other examples include Wheatfield with Crows (F779) and Landscape at Auvers in the Rain (F811).

In a letter of around 10 July 1890, Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo and sister-in-law Jo that he had already painted three large canvases at Auvers since visiting them in Paris on 6 July. One of the three paintings was Daubigny's Garden (F777). The other two he described as "immense stretches of wheatfields under turbulent skies" – probably this painting and Wheatfield with Crows – in which he was "trying to express sadness, extreme loneliness" (immenses étendues de blés sous des ciels troublés … chercher à exprimer de la tristesse, de la solitude extreme). He added that he intended to take them to Paris as soon as possible, as "these canvases will tell you what I can’t say in words, what I consider healthy and fortifying about the countryside" (j'espère vous les apporter à Paris le plus tôt possible … ces toiles vous diront ce que je ne sais dire en paroles, ce que je vois de sain et de fortifiant dans la campagne).

Van Gogh shot himself on 27 July and died in Auvers on 29 July 1890, by which time the three paintings were already with Theo van Gogh in Paris. On Theo's death in January 1891 they were inherited by his widow Johanna van Gogh-Bonger. She loaned the painting to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam from 1917 to 1919. After her death in 1925 it was inherited by Theo and Jo's son Vincent Willem van Gogh [nl]. It was transferred to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation (Vincent van Gogh Stichting) in 1962, and displayed at the Stedelijk Museum until 1973, then on permanent loan to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (known as the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh until 1994).

Daubigny's Garden (F777), Kunstmuseum Basel
Wheatfield with Crows (F779), Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Landscape at Auvers in the Rain (F811), National Museum of Art, Cardiff, Wales

References

Korenveld onder onweerslucht, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Een landschap met onweerswolken, 1890 juli, RKD.nl
Wheatfield under Thunderclouds, vangoghworldwide.org
Letter to Theo van Gogh and Jo van Gogh-Bonger. Auvers-sur-Oise, on or about Thursday, 10 July 1890, vangoghletters.org

Vincent van Gogh

General

Groups of
works

Early works (1881–82)
Portraits (1881–1890)
Peasant Character Studies (1881–1885)
Van Gogh's family in his art (1881–1888)
Sien (1882–83)
Cottages (1883–1885)
Water Mill at Gennep (1884)
Still life paintings, Netherlands (1884–85)
Old Church Tower at Nuenen (1884–85)
Amsterdam (1885)
Wheat Fields (1885–1890)
Le Moulin de la Galette (1886)
Still life paintings, Paris (1886–87)
Montmartre (1886–87)
Self portraits (1886–1889)
Outskirts of Paris (1887)
Asnières (1887)
Seine (1887)
Japonaiserie (1887)
Sunflowers (1887–1889)
Trees and Undergrowth (1887–1890)
Copies by Vincent van Gogh (1887–1890)
Langlois Bridge at Arles (1888)
Saintes-Maries (1888)
Boats du Rhône (1888)
Décoration for the Yellow House (1888)
The Roulin Family (1888–89)
Hospital in Arles (1888–89)
Flowering Orchards (1888–89)
Almond Blossoms (1888–1890)
Paintings of Children (1888–1890)
The Wheat Field (1889)
Reaper (1889)
Olive Trees (1889)
Wheat Fields (1889)
Butterflies (1889–90)
Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy (1889–90)
Auvers size 30 canvases (1890)
Auvers Double-squares and Squares (1890)
Lost works by Vincent van Gogh
Display at Les XX, 1890

Oil paintings

1882	Beach at Scheveningen in Stormy Weather Girl in White in the Woods Lying Cow A Girl in the Street, Two Coaches in the Background
1883	Cows in the Meadow Farmhouses Among Trees Bulb Fields Landscape with a Church at Twilight Landscape with Dunes Footbridge across a Ditch Marshy Landscape A Wind-Beaten Tree Farm with Stacks of Peat Farmhouses in Loosduinen near The Hague at Twilight Three Figures near a Canal with Windmill
1884	Two Rats Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen Landscape with Pollard Willows Cart with Black Ox Cart with Red and White Ox Lane in Autumn Water Mill at Opwetten Water Mill at Kollen Village at Sunset Avenue of Poplars in Autumn Avenue of Poplars at Sunset Head of an Old Farmer's Wife in a White Hat
1885	Still Life with Straw Hat The Potato Eaters Peasant Woman Digging Peasant Woman Digging Up Potatoes Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette
1886	Vase with Red Poppies Vase with White and Red Carnations The Kingfisher
1887	Poppy Flowers Wheat Field with a Lark View of Paris from Vincent's Room in the Rue Lepic Portrait of Père Tanguy A Woman Walking in a Garden Imperial Fritillaries in a Copper Vase Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin Red Cabbages and Garlic
1888	Madame Roulin and Her Baby Landscape with Snow La Mousmé The Zouave Still Life: Vase with Oleanders The Night Café The Yellow House Van Gogh's Chair Café Terrace at Night Starry Night Over the Rhône Portrait of the Artist's Mother Bedroom in Arles The Painter on the Road to Tarascon Les Alyscamps A Lane in the Public Garden at Arles Falling Autumn Leaves L'Arlésienne The Red Vineyard Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles) Les Arènes Interior of a Restaurant in Arles A Lane near Arles Arles: View from the Wheat Fields Sunset at Montmajour Farmhouse in Provence Orchard with Cypresses
1889	Valley with Ploughman Seen from Above View of Arles, Flowering Orchards Portrait of Doctor Rey Crab on its Back Two Crabs Irises Lilac Bush The Starry Night The Gardener Self-portrait (1889) Self-portrait without beard Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-Paul A Road at Saint-Remy with Female Figure Enclosed Field with Peasant Rain Cypresses Wheat Field with Cypresses Green Wheat Field with Cypress The Diggers The Ravine of the Peyroulets Ivy View of the Asylum and Chapel of Saint-Rémy The Large Plane Trees
1890	The Siesta Road with Cypress and Star At Eternity's Gate Thatched Cottages and Houses Portrait of Dr. Gachet Doctor Gachet's Garden in Auvers Houses at Auvers White House at Night Landscape with a Carriage and a Train Girl in White The Church at Auvers Daubigny's Garden Farms near Auvers The Cows The Town Hall at Auvers Blossoming Chestnut Branches Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat Still Life: Vase with Pink Roses Portrait of Adeline Ravoux Plain near Auvers Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds Wheatfield with Crows Prisoners' Round (after Gustave Doré) Tree Roots Landscape at Auvers in the Rain Poppy Field