Field with Flowers near Arles

Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo about this painting in 1888: 'A meadow full of very yellow buttercups, a ditch with iris plants with green leaves, with purple flowers, the town in the background, some grey willow trees—a strip of blue sky. If they don't mow the meadow I'd like to do this study again, because the subject matter was really beautiful and I had trouble finding the composition. A little town surrounded by countryside entirely covered in yellow and purple flowers. That would really be a Japanese dream, you know.' van Gogh also made a sketch of it in this letter.