The Harvest by Van Gogh is possibly the best landscape of his entire work. The panoramic image, which dates from the summer of 1888 when Vincent was in the prime of his abilities in Provence, shows a patchwork of fields moving away from Les Alpilles (the minor Alps). Amazingly, most of The Harvest was finished in a single day, although demanding a lot of labour and focus in the midday sun. After returning from the fields, Vincent wrote to his brother Theo, "my brain is so exhausted." One's mind is very stretched, just like an actor on stage playing a challenging role—where they must think of a thousand things at once, he said.
