Writing to his brother Theo from the asylum in Saint-Rémy in early July 1889, van Gogh described his latest work in the series he had begun in June: "I have a canvas of cypresses with some ears of wheat, some poppies, a blue sky like a piece of Scotch plaid; the former painted with a thick impasto . . . and the wheat field in the sun, which represents the extreme heat, very thick too." Van Gogh regarded this sun-drenched landscape as one of his "best" summer canvases, and he reproduced the composition in a reed pen drawing (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam) and in two variants in oil paint (National Gallery, London, and private collection).
Writing to his brother Theo from the asylum in Saint-Rémy in early July 1889, van Gogh described his latest work in the series he had begun in June: "I have a canvas of cypresses with some ears of wheat, some poppies, a blue sky like a piece of Scotch plaid; the former painted with a thick impasto . . . and the wheat field in the sun, which represents the extreme heat, very thick too." Van Gogh regarded this sun-drenched landscape as one of his "best" summer canvases, and he reproduced the composition in a reed pen drawing (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam) and in two variants in oil paint (National Gallery, London, and private collection).
