Enclosed Field with Peasant

Van Gogh's series of enclosed fields at Saint-Rémy were painted from the window of his room or from the walled garden of the asylum, the enclosure becoming both a literal and metaphorical subject. He found a kind of consolation in working within the limited territory available to him and wrote that the field gave him 'something of the peacefulness of a cloister.' The peasant ploughing within the enclosed field invokes his lifelong reverence for Millet's labouring figures, and he painted multiple versions of this motif as deliberate homage. The series belongs to the most sustained period of work in his entire career — approximately 150 paintings in twelve months.

Undulating parallel strokes in olive green, yellow, and ochre animate the ploughed furrows. The walls enclosing the field are rendered in thicker paint. The sky is compressed into a narrow band, emphasising the contained, protective nature of the space.