Harvest by Vincent Van Gogh Poster

Harvest by Vincent Van Gogh, oil on canvas 1888, is a complex landscape painting depicting a vast expanse of fields, fences and farmlands stretching towards the horizon, with farm buildings, a small town and crisply drawn, rolling hills in the distance. Farmers harvest their crops and pile large haystacks while horse-drawn hay wagons go to and fro, the sun shining brightly on the warm green fields of wheat and grains. Van Gogh contrasts the perspectival depth of overlapping planes, objects and landscape elements receding in space with the flatness of brilliant patches of flat colour, all painted in characteristic thick, swirling brushstrokes. Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890) was a Dutch painter of the Post-Impressionist movement known for bold, expressive drawing, swirling brushstrokes and intense, heightened colours. In early adulthood Van Gogh worked as an art dealer, teacher and pastor before taking up the full time study of drawing and painting in his late twenties. Influenced by Rembrandt, the 19th century Realists and Barbizon school, Van Gogh’s early paintings featured studies of workers and peasants in sombre earth tones. Moving to France in 1886, Van Gogh met with the startling innovations of the Impressionist painters and began to apply their approach to colour and subject matter, which continued into the mature style for which the artist is most renowned. Van Gogh produced many hundreds of drawings and paintings including portraits, landscapes, still life and flower paintings, and numerous self-portraits that became a dominating influence on the modern art of the 20th century and made him one of the most popular artists of all time.