Ears of Wheat

Ears of Wheat, painted in June 1890 at Auvers-sur-Oise just weeks before Van Gogh's death, is a close-up study of grain stalks observed at ground level — an intimate, almost microscopic view of the agricultural world he had documented from a distance in so many landscape paintings. The extreme proximity to the subject gives the work an intensity that many of his final Auvers paintings share, as though Van Gogh was pressing himself as close as possible to the living world. The Van Gogh Museum holds this work as a poignant document of his last creative weeks.

Van Gogh fills the entire canvas with the upward thrust of wheat stalks and drooping ears, eliminating horizon or sky. The handling is confident and energetic — twisting, spiralling strokes that follow the organic growth of each stalk — while the colour range of greens, yellows, and warm ochres is brilliantly controlled.