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les collections aristophil
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Peu avant son suicide, en mai 1889, Van
de vue de la �enêtre de sa chambre soit
comme celles de Van Goyen, au-dessus
Gogh �ut admis à l’asile de Saint-Rémy et
nature qui l’entourait.
dépeint le champ dans quatorze œuvres
directement du champ... Tous les dessins
Théo datée de mai 1889, Van Gogh décrit
j e vois un champ de blé de �orme carrée
de laquelle j e vois se lever le soleil dans
toute sa splendeur ». Ce corpus met une
�ois encore en évidence l’émerveillement
de l’artiste devant la beauté de la nature
: «Le cycle annuel du blé - les semences,
car nous qui vivons de pain, ne sommes-
totalement impuissants tels des plants de
imagination désire par�ois, et prêts à être
toutes ces choses dont on ne saisit pas la
raison d’être, à part regarder les champs
de blé ?’ ».
soigné à Saint Paul de Mausole. Il partagea
potagers et champs �ermés, situés derrière
Notre dessin �ait partie, selon le catalogue
ainsi : «A travers la �enêtre à barreaux de �er,
récon�ortant pour Van Gogh : ‘Que d’autre
son temps entre le j ardinage dans les
éxécutés à cette période : «Van Gogh
peintes et treize dessins, soit du point
chacun d’un point de vue légèrement
Gogh le cycle éternel de la vie : ‘Leur
pas nous soumett re à la croissance,
l’hospice, la peinture et le dessin de la
la pousse, la récolte - rappellent à Van
récoltés lorsque nous sommes mûrs ?’
le blé, tout au moins ne devrions-nous
de la collection du Musée Van Gogh à
pouvons-nous �aire, quand on pense à
Amsterdam, d’un corpus
important
plus
diférent. » . Dans une lettre à son �rère
représentent une vue d’un champ muré,
nous pas nous-mêmes en grande partie
Cette idée fit du champ de blé un moti�
1
entouré d’une clôture : une perspective
2
3
histoire [celle des cultures] est la nôtre,
blé, croissance relative à ce que notre
store, and absorbed Pissarro’s Divisionist
theories.
cide, Van Gogh was admitted to the Saint-
mental condition worsened, and an attack
o� violence due to his long mental illness,
began to work in kitchen gardens and the
by his fits, Van Gogh painted ceaselessly.
the year he spent in Saint Paul, he �ound
The last years o� his li�e were blighted by
subj ects in views o� nature within and out-
Van Gogh spent them in Auvers-sur-Oise,
a hypothetical �ailed suicide attempt on 27
the field in �ourteen paintings and thirteen
never known honours or success. He only
sold one painting during his li�etime.
window or �rom a spot in the field... All the
drawings show a view o� the walled field,
square wheat field: a perspective like Van
rising in all its splendour.” In this drawing,
as in others o� the series, Van Gogh’s pro-
société: “Van Gogh was right: we can live
and harvest – reminded Van Gogh o� the
and in the spheres to nourish a thousand
live by bread, are also wheat to a certain
great geniuses.”
degree, aren’t we? At least, don’t we have
plants – growth that is sometimes subj ect
finally become ripe �or reaping?’ This idea
made the wheat field a com�orting theme
In May 1889, around a year be�ore his sui-
iron-barred window I can see an enclosed
tormented Van Gogh, always subj ect to fits
the infinite; there is enough infinity on earth
�or Van Gogh: ‘What else can we do, when
landed him in the hospital o� Saint Rémy-de
In 1889, Van Gogh described the walled field
is unknown to us, but look at wheat fields?’”
enclosed fields lying behind the hospital. He
logue o� the Musée Van Gogh’s collection in
Provence. When he was not incapacitated
�or the infinite; be satisfied with nothing but
we think o� all those things whose purpose
constantly painted and drew, and throughout
side the confines o� the institution. The cata-
Amsterdam includes this painting in a larger
body o� drawings on paper produced by
Van Gogh in the asylum: “Van Gogh depicts
to submit to growth, as powerless as wheat
each �rom a slightly diferent viewpoint.” ( ).
in a letter to his brother Théo: “Through the
colour. One o� them, Antonin Artaud, wrote
Rémy asylum. While he was undergoing
to live in Arles. However, his ever-�ragile
endless cycle o� li�e: ‘Their story [that o�
treatment at Saint Paul de Mausole, the
drawings, seen either �rom his bedroom
in the 1930s, thanks to a huge exhibition
annual cycle o� wheat – sowing, growth
1
2
3
Goyen’s, above which I can see the sun
highly idiosyncratic mastery o� line and
the dazzling light o� Provence and went
to the desires o� our imagination – and
�ound �eeling �or nature is evident: “The
the crops] is ours, too, because we, who
1
2
3
RD
Marij e Vellekoop & Roelie Zwikker, op. cit., p. 392
New York Graphic Society, eds.,
, Greenwich, vol. III, 1958, no. 592, p. 173
Marij e Vellekoop & Roelie Zwikker, op. cit., p. 392, citations de la correspondance de Van Gogh
The Complete Letters o� Vincent Van Gogh
détail
Like them, he was power�ully drawn to
these terrible periods o� mental illness.
a village that had already inspired the
His current popularity and the aura
at the MOMA . However, some o� his
contemporaries had recognised the
sources o� inspiration drove him to
develop a characteristic style with a
�orce�ully in Van Gogh, le suicide de la
Barbizon artists and Impressionists. A�ter
July 1887, he died two days later, having
surrounding him only began to develop
genius o� a prolific artist whose diverse
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