In late 1984 when Van Gogh at Arles was staged at The Metropolitan Museum of Art the very last work I saw was under a spotlight just as we left the exhibit.
If memory serves…
It showed a wheat field in moonlight, with just one wheat stack standing in the center of the paining.
It was so forlorn, so lonely, it brought tears to my eyes, and all I could say was a mournful “Oh Vincent…” Something like this has never happened to me before or since. (In retrospect, Vincent could well have meant this as a sublimely happy scene for all I know.)
The problem is, I can’t find a print of that work. I went to allposters.com and look through all the Van Gogh with no success.
No, that one is called “In the Wheat Field with Crows.” Also, it wasn’t, technically, the last one he made. The one you describe has something to do with a hay stack. I’ll give it 10 minutes and if no one responds I’ll dig out my art books.
Like I said to DeadyAccurate, I haven’t seen it. Thank you for trying.
Please don’t go any further on this. I think it’s hopeless.
My wife drags me kicking and screaming to art exhibits. Not entirely true, because once there, I’ve always enjoyed myself. One of the pleasures is watching the people looking at the paintings. Some of the expressions are positively beatific.
The same thing happened at the Arles affair - except that I probably had the rapt look. I was immersed, and a knot a knot began forming in my stomach. And by the time I looked at that last wheat field, the knot was palpable. It stayed for weeks.
The problem is that this was an Arles exhibit and half the stuff Vincent painted at this time, maybe more, was freaking fields of wheat. (Wheat. I’m dying and she’s talking about wheat.) If you said it was at night, then the only thing I could think of in the Arles period would be Starry Night Over the Rhone: Vincent van Gogh: The Paintings (Starry Night Over the Rhone) .
What dominate colors do you remember? Anything else to go by?
Not this one, either. And the mystery work isn’t in my Van Gogh Retrospective, either.
For what it’s worth, I sent an email to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, asking about that painting. Since it was Saturday, I received an Auto-Response, so I can be sure they at least got it. Maybe I’ll hear something later this week. If so, I’ll report it here, verbatim.
Thanks again, ZebraShaSha. It was excepionally nice of you to have gone to all this trouble.
Why not write the museum and ask? I know it was in 1984, but I’m sure they have records of all their exhibitions and could find a list of the paintings that were displayed. If there is one thing museums should be good at, it’s keeping track of details. They would be so tickled to know that their exhibit had such a profound impact on you.
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