Plain near Auvers

Vincent van Gogh painted "Plain near Auvers" in the summer of 1890, and the setting is a broad green field spreading toward a horizon dotted with trees and small buildings. The village of Auvers-sur-Oise, just north of Paris, was where he spent the final seventy days of his life, and he worked at an almost impossible speed there, producing close to eighty paintings. His brushwork is on full display here, with thick dabs and curling strokes that turn the grass into something that seems to sway and the sky into a mass of drifting clouds.

Knowing how much Van Gogh was struggling at this point in his life, the calm of the scene comes as a surprise. He was drawn to these flat open plains and returned to them again and again, often planting himself in a dip in the land so the fields appear to roll on without end. Scattered through the greenery are small bursts of color that reward a second glance, from the red poppies near the front edge to the soft golds and pinks fading into the distance. This is a simple and heartfelt view of countryside he had come to care for, carrying the restless energy of a man who kept painting until the very end.