the siesta

Two farm workers have collapsed into a haystack for a midday rest, boots tossed aside, hats shading their faces from the summer sun. Van Gogh painted this drowsy moment in 1890, though the composition came from someone else. He borrowed it from a black-and-white print by Jean-François Millet, a French artist he greatly admired. During this stretch of his career, Van Gogh frequently reworked images by other painters, treating them like sheet music he could replay in his own style. His main contribution was color, which he poured onto the canvas without restraint.

The glowing yellows of the wheat play off the cool blues of the sleepers' clothing, a clash of opposite colors that somehow feels soothing rather than jarring. That balance of warmth and calm marks his mature work, and his familiar swirling brushstrokes ripple across the whole scene, giving even a simple nap a sense of movement. Van Gogh created this while living in an asylum at Saint-Rémy, a low point in his life, which lends the gentle peace of the picture an extra layer of meaning. Whatever turmoil he carried, he still managed to paint rest as something warm and unhurried.