Reaper (Van Gogh series)

|alt=A sketch using a reed pen and ink on light cream paper of an enclosed wheatfield. There is a pile of sheaves in the foreground, and the hills in the background descend to the left where an outline of the Sun is just above the lower peaks. A couple of farm buildings are visible beyond the wall at the foot of the hills, and one building further up the sloping hills. On this side of the enclosure is a profile of man with a reaper harvesting the wheat, amongst which his almost oscured. In May 1889, Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), a Dutch painter, moved to the Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, to commit himself at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, a psychiatric asylum which was previously a monastery. This presented Van Gogh with a completely different landscape from which to draw inspiration. While Saint-Remy was only from Arles, his previous residence, it lies below the low massifs of the Alpilles in contrast to the vast plains of Arles. Van Gogh's bedroom window framed a view of an agrarian landscape that became the focus of the artist's work. A wheat field was located below his window, encircled by a wall and hills in the background. The artist made at least 14 paintings and just as many sketches of the scene. == Composition ==

First painting (F617) , Otterlo|alt=A thickly painted oil-on-canvas painting that is almost entirely shades of yellow depicting an enclosed wheatfield where a man on the left uses a reaper which he sweaps in front of him. The wheatfield has darker shades near the pile in the foreground and brighter spots in other areas that are almost white. Everything in the sky, which is mostly to the left above the lower hills, is a brighter yellow than the wheat. This includes the Sun which is distiguished only by a darker outline in circular strokes of paint against the horizontal brush strokes of the yellow sky. In contrast, the hills start at the top right with a bluish grey and descend to the left into shades of yellow and brown like the wall. A few trees and three buildings are visible below the hills and behind the wall which cuts almost horizontally across the painting. Van Gogh began painting Reaper (F617) in late June 1889. He first mentions the painting in a 25 June 1889 letter to his brother Theo van Gogh where he describes it as "a wheatfield, very yellow and very bright, perhaps the brightest canvas [he has] done". He writes that it was among 12 paintings on which he was currently working. The painting is mentioned again in a 2 July 1889 letter: In the painting measuring , the reaper is depicted with just a few brushstrokes of blue in swirling yellow wheat that leaves an outline of the figure in green. His sickle is only a single brushstroke and barely visible. The painting appears to have been mostly completed by then. While writing the 4–5 September letter, he touched up the first painting, which he described as a study, and began working on a new version. He initially preferred this version over the earlier study, describing it as: The "almost smiling" is a reference to an expression used by art critic Théophile Silvestre to describe the death of painter Eugène Delacroix. Silvestre's eulogy of Delacroix had made an impression on Van Gogh, according to a letter he wrote in 15 August 1885 to the painter Anthon van Rappard. Van Gogh also quoted the eulogy in other letters. There were significant differences between this second painting and the earlier version from the summer. Van Gogh used on the second version a set of paints he had received in early July – what he called "the palette of the North". The second painting is less yellow, with a sky that is more greenish in color, Van Gogh came to believe the original painting, created from nature, was better than the replica which he had intended as "the final painting". Both the first and second version of the painting were still drying on 19 September 1889, and he was unable to include them in the batch he shipped to Theo on that date. The paintings were eventually included in the batch he sent on 28 September, by which time he had completed a third version of the painting. In particular, he wrote on 6 September 1889: "I really want to redo the reaper one more time for Mother, if not I'll make her another painting for her birthday". This third version of the painting, also known as ''The Wheatfield Behind Saint Paul's Hospital with a Reaper'', or , was smaller at . The painting was completed and drying by 28 September and, in December 1889, was sent to Theo along with several other small replicas. == Reception ==

'' (F422), now in the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo Martin Bailey wrote that The Wheat Field paintings and sketches as a collection, "done in different seasons, at various times of the day, in all weathers and in evolving styles [...] represent a microcosm of the artist's work at Saint-Paul." Art historian Ronald Pickvance saw Reaper as bringing to full circle the artist's vision of the Sower (F422) painted in Arles; "Creation versus death: two poles of his symbolic imagery, and two of his most haunting statements in paint." In a video review of the second painting, filmmaker and painter Jeroen Krabbé said that the painting's theme of death and motif of the reaper was not just a premonition of the artist's death. Krabbé said, == Provenance ==

Van Gogh died about a year after creating the paintings. His brother, Theo, died a few months later The original study was in 1890 either gifted to Paul Gauguin or traded for a work by the French artist. In 1899, the painting was acquired by Ambroise Vollard from Gauguin's art dealer Georges Chaudet. The piece was then acquired by the art collector Émile Schuffenecker, who passed it down to Amédée Schuffenecker, who in turn sold it to Helene Kröller-Müller in April 1912. It has since been in the collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum. The sketch, part of Van Gogh's 2 July 1889 letter to Theo, was in the collection of Otto Wacker until 1928 when it was acquired by the National Gallery in Berlin. It was transferred in 1992 to the Museum of Prints and Drawings, part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Van Gogh-Bonger and her son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, loaned the second painting to museums in Amsterdam. In 1909, she loaned the piece to the Rijksmuseum. After her death in 1925, her son continued to loan the piece to the Rijksmuseum. On 22 October 1931, the painting was loaned to the Stedelijk Museum. Ownership of the painting was transferred to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation on 10 July 1962, and eleven days later, an agreement was reached between the foundation and the State of the Netherlands for the preservation and management of the painting as part of a new Van Gogh Museum. While the new museum was being built, the painting remained at Stedelijk until 2 June 1973, when it was placed on permanent loan to the Van Gogh Museum. The same year, art collector Karl Ernst Osthaus of the Museum Folkwang acquired the painting for his collection in Hagen, Germany. Since 1922, it has been a part of the museum's collection in Essen. ==See also==