Wheatfield Under Threatening Skies

Wheat Field with Crows was painted in July 1890. It is commonly and mistakenly believed that this was Van Gogh's last painting, or even that he shot himself while he was painting it; this is how it was portrayed in the film Lust for Life. However there is no evidence to support this idea, and Dr. Jan Hulsker's chronology gives seven works following it. A usual interpretation of this painting is that it shows Van Gogh's troubled state of mind with a dark, forbidding sky, the indecision of three paths going in different directions and the black crows overhead being signs of foreboding or even death. The artist wrote that he had made three paintings in Auvers of large fields of wheat under troubled skies. Van Gogh did indeed commit suicide in the same month that he painted this picture. It is generally agreed that he went for a walk in the fields on the evening of July 27, 1890. He shot himself with a revolver, then made his way back home. He was in bed for two days before he died, with his brother Theo at his side. This painting is currently held at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.