1. Formalism (What are the forms that can be found in the painting above?

Briefly describe each.)

2. Expressionism (How do you think the artist was feeling when he created
the artwork?)

For all of us in the northern hemisphere we are in the midst of winter. The days are short, the
skies are grey and the rain is plentiful. It is truly a depressing time of the year and one knows
only too well that there is nothing more likely to lift one’s spirits than the presence of blue skies,
coupled with long hours of sunshine and feeling the warmth of the sun on one’s back. So what
has all this to do with My Daily Art Display’s featured painting and the famous artist who
painted it? Well, just maybe Vincent felt the same as he looked out the window of his Parisian
apartment in February 1888. Today my featured artist is Vincent Willem van Gogh and my
featured painting is entitled Harvest at La Crau with Montmajour in the Background which he
completed this work in 1888 and can now be found in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Van Gogh had come to Paris from Antwerp in March 1886 to live with his brother Théo, who
was the manager at the Goupil Gallery in the Boulevard Montmartre. He studied for a time at
the Atelier Cormon under the tutelage of Femand Cormon, the French painter and art
teacher. Whilst in Paris, Van Gogh met up with many of the Impressionists, such as Camille
Pissarro, Emile Bernard and Claude Monet and became firm friends with Paul Gaugin who only
arrived in the French capital in late 1887. Van Gogh also witnessed the infancy of Neo-
Impressionism and the works of the Neo-Impressionists Signac and Seurat. Van Gogh quickly
abandoned the dark colors he had used to create his earlier paintings and began to he embrace the
brighter more vibrant colors and the techniques of the Impressionists. Life in the French capital
for van Gogh with his painting during the day and his socialising with his fellow artists at night
soon began to affect his health and after almost two years he began to tire of the cliquish Parisian
art scene. Whether it was for this reason or for health reasons or even the simple desire to leave
the drab and cold capital city we will probably never be sure but there was no doubt that he
hankered for the warmer sunny climate and the vibrant colours of the southern countryside., Van
Gogh decided to move south to Arles and take advantage of the special Provencal climate with
its many uninterrupted hours of sunlight and by doing so also absorb the beauty of the French
countryside. It was his fervent hope that he could persuade some of his newly found artist
friends to join him there and together they could set up a school of art, maybe even an artists’
colony and together he believed they could resurrect the purity of the arts. This was to be van
Gogh’s Studio of the South. He left Paris in February 1888, a month before his thirty-fifth
birthday, and headed south for Provence.
It was during his sojourn in Provence that he painted today’s featured painting Harvest at La
Crau with Montmajour in the Background. Van Gogh loved this region of Provence with the
rocky outcrop of Montmajour and the Montmajour abbey. This was thought to be one of the
happiest times of his troubled life. For a short period he seemed very content with his way of
life. He made many pen and ink sketches of the Benedictine abbey at Montmajour and the
spectacular views from it of the surrounding area. Van Gogh spent much time producing
sketches with his reed pen and rather less time painting. The reasons for this were probably two-
fold. Painting and the acquiring of paints was quite costly and it was almost impossible to paint
when the Mistral wind was at full strength. In a letter which he wrote to his brother Théo in July
1888, he described the pleasure he derived from this area, despite the problem with mosquitos
and the strong cold northerly Mistral wind which made his canvases shake on the easel
andmade en plein air painting almost impossible. He wrote:
“….But now I’ve been to Montmajour 50 times to see that view over the plain, if a view can
make one forget such small displeasures, then it must have something…”
In this painting, the pride of place does not go to the abbey which can be seen in the
background. The painting is all about the yellow and green patchwork quilt fields of La Crau
which lay between Montmajour and Arles. The fields are interspersed with small farm
buildings with their red-topped roofs, the colour of which not only acts as a contrast to but
seems to enhance the colour of the surrounding fields. In the middle ground we can see a blue
cart which is often cited as a secondary title to the painting. He painted the scene in June 1888
and he believed it to be his best work to date. It was at a time when the summer heat was
beginning to intensify and the life-restoring radiance of the Mediterranean sun was his constant
companion.