immense stretches of wheatfields under turbulent skies, thought to be Wheatfield under Clouded Sky and Wheatfield with Crows, and the third is Daubigny's Garden. He wrote that he had made a point of expressing sadness, later adding "extreme loneliness" (de la solitude extrême), but also says he believes the canvases show what he considers healthy and fortifying about the countryside (and adds that he intended to take them to Paris as soon as possible). Walther and Metzger, in Van Gogh: The Complete Paintings, state that "There is nothing in van Gogh's words to support a simplistic interpretation along the lines of artistic angst and despair – nor is there any evidence for the widely-held belief that it was this painting that van Gogh had on his easel at the time he killed himself." They refer to a June 1880 letter of van Gogh's, in which he compared himself to a bird in a cage, and remark: "The crows in the painting, in other words, were an altogether personal symbol closely associated with van Gogh's own life". These painting are all examples of van Gogh's elongated double-square canvases, used exclusively by him in the last few weeks of his life, in June and July 1890. The painting is held in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, as is Wheatfield under Clouded Sky. Wheatfield with Crows was stolen and quickly recovered in 1991 along with 19 other van Gogh paintings; the painting was "severely damaged" during the heist. See also List of works by Vincent van Gogh For other paintings of wheat fields by Van Gogh see Wheat Fields (Van Gogh series). For Joan Mitchell's 1987 painting No Birds, a homage to Wheatfield with Crows, see her article Joan Mitchell. Further reading Erickson, Kathleen Powers. At Eternity's Gate: The Spiritual Vision of Vincent van Gogh, 1998. References External links Paintings by Vincent van Gogh Paintings of Auvers-sur-Oise by Vincent van Gogh 1890 paintings Collections of the Van Gogh Museum Birds in art Farming in art