Interpretation of paintings by van Gogh
By Setsuko Hamada
I had an intuitive image of a solar eclipse when I saw this painting.
It gave me a shocking impact to see the day scenery reflecting the night through the phenomenon of the solar eclipse, and I realized that the world could not be perceived only by what you see.
In my opinion, this painting is the scenery of inner feeling which embraces the existence of day and night, mystery of existence itself,and life and death.
van Gogh must have tried to convey the message that living and dying are coexistent.
A supernatural fear and inspiration are floating in this painting.
The deep blue background gets even darker(like raven-black) as it goes higher.
On the contrary, there is a sun above the church.
Moreover,there must be two sources of light from a quite close range since the shadow is spreading into left and right of the church.
Van Gogh's intention is clear by the distinct shadow dented at the center.
In the photograph(1) that was taken from the same angle as this painting,you can see the facade of the church protruding circularly.
Therefore, it is impossible to have two windows lined up flatly side by side as in his painting.
However,van Gogh confidently portrayed this contradiction in the center of the painting.
When you divide the painting from the center and look at each half,you can see the right half is bright and left is dark.
The gray area above the red roof on the right end is indeed a roof in the photograph(1) also.
I assume this is a suggestion of the horizon.
The horizon on the left end slopes downwards as you can see the roof from the grassland.
On the right, there is a building across the road in the photograph(1), but in the painting the road is narrower by placing the imaginary grass area to make the left and right roads symmetrical.
The lady with the sun hat can be seen as either walking towards front or walking away in the opposite direction.
This figure is the key of this painting.
In other words,I think this painting expresses this life (front area) and the other world (left is a road to death, and right is a road to birth) by using church as a medium.
The lady can be viewed as a woman departing to the world of death, or a person revived from the depth of death.
Needless to say, there is no indication of time on the clock.
The distorted church is not a result of van Gogh's mental illness, but was created with a strong,purposeful intention as an inevitable necessity.
The flock of birds flying in the stormy wheat field reveals the feeling of insecurity and ill omen.
The crows could be interpreted as a manifestation of human being, or spirits departing to the world of death, or spirits trying to escape from the death.
The road is forked into three directions, but unlike Church in Over, the death world is displayed in the front, and the earth color on the right that seems like a road could be a realm between this world and the other.
Therefore,it could be assumed that the number of roads is two (life and death).
This is a painting of a wheat field before harvest, fruition of labor, and the joy of sky and earth.
However, it is titled "Stormy" Wheat Field.
The work extends far beyond words.
I believe this work was titled paradoxically to express van Gogh's deepest prayer that our hearts should not be in turmoil no matter what happens in life.
Photograph(1)
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Japan Economic Newspaper) Sunday edition November 19,2000