Vincent Van Gogh has a reputation for creating beautiful works of art under abnormal circumstances. On May 8, 1889, Van Gogh voluntarily locked himself up in the Saint-Rémy psychiatric asylum suffering from acute mania, which caused hallucinations which caused him to cut off his ear. Wheat fields and olive groves surrounded the asylum, which had a view of the Alpilles. Van Gogh sent a letter to his brother Theo in which he wrote: “Beyond the window with its iron bars I see a walled wheat field. ". Van Gogh appreciated this wheat field so much; he depicted the scene several times in his paintings. One of his most famous paintings is Wheat Fields with Cypresses. Van Gogh painted this work in 1889 using the impasto technique. This oil on canvas creation measures approximately 28 ¾ by 36 ¾ inches and is currently on display in the Annenberg Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. When I saw the painting, the first thing I noticed was that it was placed in the center of the back wall of the room, directly in front of the bench. It made me feel like the artwork around him was almost inferior, in a sense, to Van Gogh's. I noticed that the frame has less detail than some of the other works in the room, and furthermore, the size of the frame made the painting appear significantly smaller, even though that is not the case. The wheat fields with cypress trees represent Van Gogh's inner thoughts and emotions through his use of colors and his interpretation of the surrounding landscape. The painting represents a scene of peace and beauty; however, the different elements of the landscape have symbolism in the eyes of Van Gogh. The painting includes the wheat field, olive trees and ...... middle of paper ......; however, the deeper you look, the sadder everything is (his mental state). Van Gogh is one of the world's best-known post-impressionists; his works are still appreciated today. Vincent Van Gogh had a humble upbringing. As the son of a pastor, he believed he had to give back to his community, but he failed. It was not until his early thirties that he created his first successful work of art. Demons in his head prevented him from experiencing the normalcy he dreamed of and he ended up in the hospital for the insane. He produced a series of paintings depicting the surrounding landscape of the institution, one of the most famous being Wheat Fields with Cypresses. Van Gogh never truly realized his greatness and at the age of 37 he committed suicide. Unfortunately, he never got to see the appreciation and recognition his art receives, even 124 years later..