Courtesy of www.VincentVanGogh.org

Van Gogh drew a group of paintings of Walled Wheat Field while he was staying in Saint-Rémy, a small village near Arles. He was hospitalized at that time and this is a view Van Gogh can see every day from the window of the room he was staying.

In May Van Gogh wrote to Theo, "Through the iron-barred window I see a square field of wheat in an enclosure, a perspective like Van Goyen, above which I see the morning sun rising in all its glory." The stone wall, like a picture frame, helped to display the changing colors of the wheat field.

In this painting, Van Gogh depicted the drawing filled in with a great variety of pencil strokes. In contrast with most of the pictures of the wheat field - painted or drawn - the mood is somewhat menacing, with a fearsome cloud dominating the composition.