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Overview

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) is one of the most popular and universally recognized artists of all time. A remarkably prolific artist, he produced approximately 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings during a brief career spanning a mere decade. Following a succession of jobs, including a position as an art dealer, he moved in 1880 to the Borinage region of Belgium to work as a lay missionary among the miners. It was there that he decided to become an artist. Largely self-trained, in 1886 he moved to Paris, where he spent three months in the studio of the painter Fernand Cormon. He also made the acquaintance of a number of avant-garde artists including Paul Gauguin. Following two fruitful but emotionally draining years, he left Paris and moved to Arles, a town in southern France. Deeply inspired by the sun-drenched landscape and the picturesque character of the region and its inhabitants, Van Gogh developed what would become his signature style, marked by lush impasto, energetic brushwork, and vibrant color. In May 1889, the emotionally troubled artist voluntarily admitted himself as a patient at the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in nearby Saint-Rémy, where he remained for a year. In May 1890, he moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, where he stayed until he took his own life two months later.

Green Wheat Fields, Auvers was painted during these final months in Auvers. In this village just north of Paris, Van Gogh painted the Romanesque church, the town hall, and some of the picturesque thatched-roof houses. As he did in the countryside surrounding Arles and Saint-Rémy, he also painted more or less "pure" landscapes. This work is indeed singular in that there is no legible motif beyond the grassy field, road, and sky; no farmers or horse-driven carts; no rural structures. Instead, pure flora is whipped up by the wind.  Two-thirds of the composition consists of the field in a rich range of greens and blues, punctuated by outbursts of yellow flowers. As in the paintings he completed in the countryside surrounding Arles and Saint- Rémy, here Van Gogh painted a “pure” landscape.

The artist wrote of his return to northern France as a kind of homecoming, a peaceful restoration of his mental state in which the vibrant, hot colors of the south were replaced by cool, gentle hues in green and blue. In Green Wheat Fields, Auvers, Van Gogh's energetic strokes describe the movement of grassy stalks in the breeze, their patterned undulations creating a woven integral form anchored at the right by a juncture of field, road, and sky. There, the turbulent vibrations are held in place, just barely. Overhead, clouds spin. Van Gogh's long calligraphic brushstrokes applied in thick impasto, creating a textured surface like that in his best-loved paintings. Through his dynamic touch and vivid, rich color, Van Gogh expresses the intense freshness of the countryside.

The ninth oil painting by the artist to come to the collection, Green Wheat Fields, Auvers represents Van Gogh's wildly prolific Auvers period, along with the Girl in White. It hangs in the Gallery's West Building with several works from Arles, including La Mousmé and Farmhouse in Provence, as well as from his stay at Saint-Rémy, where he painted Roses and his blazing Self-Portrait. This powerful painting relates perhaps even more strongly to three of the Gallery's pen and ink drawings by Van Gogh, all from 1888 (The Harvest, Harvest—The Plain of La Crau, and Ploughman in the Fields near Arles), in the rhythmic marks used to represent nature's unifying energy.

Green Wheat Fields, Auvers spent its early life in Germany, represented as early as 1905 by modern art dealer Paul Cassirer.  F. H. Herrmann took it from Berlin to London before eventually selling it in December 1955 to Paul Mellon through the Carstairs Gallery in New York. With the exception of an exhibition at the Gallery in 1966, the painting remained in Mellon’s home in Virginia until Mrs. Mellon donated the painting to the Gallery in 2013.

Provenance

Theo van Gogh, Paris [1857-1891]; his widow, Joanna van Gogh-Bonger [1862-1925], Amsterdam; (Paul Cassirer Gallery, Berlin); sold 1906 to Curt Herrmann [1854-1929], Berlin; his son, Frederick [Fritz] Henry Herrmann [1898-1983], Berlin and London; sold December 1955 through (Carstairs Gallery, New York) to Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia; bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to Mrs. Mellon; life interest released 2013.

Exhibition History

1905
I. Ausstellung, Paul Cassirer, Hamburg; Ernst Arnold, Dresden; Paul Cassirer, Berlin, September-December 1905, no. 18 in Hamburg catalogue (no catalogue for Dresden and Berlin).
1905
Tentoonstelling van Schilderijen en Teekeningen door Vincent van Gogh, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, July-August 1905, no. 433.
1906
Vincent van Gogh, H.O. Miethke, Vienna, January 1906, no. 14.
1912
Internationale Kunstausstellung des Sonderbundes Westdeutscher Kunstfreunde und Künstler, Kunstgewerbe Museum, Cologne, 1912, no. 42.
1914
Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cassirer, Berlin, 1914, no. 138.
1928
Vincent van Gogh Gemälde, Paul Cassirer, Berlin, 1928, no. 89.
1966
French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 135, repro.
2015
Van Gogh and Nature, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown; Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, 2015, no. 27, repro. (shown only in Williamstown), no. 50, repro.

Bibliography

1911
Hermann, Curt. Der Kampf um den Stil. Berlin, 1911: 115.
1912
"Der Künstler und seine Welt: Curt Hermann - Berlin als Maler und Sammler." Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration 31 (1912-1913): 131-138, repro.
1929
Pfister, Kurt. Vincent van Gogh. Berlin, 1929: pl. 41.
1939
Faille, J.-B. de la. Vincent Van Gogh. New York and Paris, 1939: no. F. 807, repro.
1966
French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966: repro. no. 135.
1970
Faille, J.-B. de la. The Works of Vincent van Gogh: Paintings and Drawings. Amsterdam, 1970: no. F807, repro.
1971
Lecaldano, Paolo. L'opera pittorica completa di Van Gogh e i suoi nessi grafici. 2 vols. Milan, 1971: I:no. 859, repro.
1980
Hulsker, Jan. The Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, drawings, sketches. New York, 1980: no. 1980, repro.
1988
Feilchenfeldt, Walter. Vincent van Gogh & Paul Cassirer, Berlin. Amsterdam, 1988: 122, repro.
1989
Bothe, Roth. "Der Sammler Französischer Kunst." In Curt Hermann 1854-1929 Ein Maler der Moderne in Berlin. Exh. cat. Berlin Museum, 1989: 92, repro. 33.
1994
Gachet, Paul. Les 70 jours de van Gogh à Auvers : essai d'éphéméride dans le décor de l'époque (20 mai-30 juillet 1890), d'après les lettres, documents, souvenirs et déductions, Auvers-sur-Oise, 1959. Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, 1994: 138, repro.
2002
Hansen, Dorothee. Van Gogh: Fields - The Field with Poppies and the Artists' Dispute. Exh. cat. Kunsthalle Bremen, 2002: 104-105, color repro.
2002
Korn, Madeleine. "Collecting Paintings by Van Gogh in Britain before the Second World War." Van Gogh Museum Journal 2002: 137.
2006
Bailey, Martin. Van Gogh and Britain: Pioneer Collectors. Exh. cat. Compton Verney, Warwickshire; Dean Gallery, Edinburgh. Edinburgh, 2006: 122-123.
2009
Van der Veen, Wouter, and Peter Knapp. Vincent van Gogh à Auvers. Paris, 2009: 140, repro.
2009
Vincent van Gogh -- Between Earth and Heaven: The Landscapes. Exh. cat. Kunstmuseum Basel, 2009: 270, repro. fig. 100.
2013
Boyle, Katherine. "National Gallery Welcomes Gift of van Gogh's "Final Gasp." Washington Post 137, no. 15 (December 20, 2013): C8, color repro.
2013
Vogel, Carol. "A Van Gogh Out of the Living Room" (Inside Art). New York Times) 163, no. 56,356 (20 December 2013): C25, color repro.
2014
Morton, Mary. "Vincent van Gogh, Green Wheat Fields, Auvers" National Gallery of Art Bulletin no. 50 (Spring 2014): 20-21, repro.

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