Writing to his brother, Theo, from the asylum in Saint-Rémy in early July 1889, Van Gogh described his latest addition to the series he had launched that June: "I have a canvas of cypresses with some ears of wheat, some poppies, a blue sky like a piece of Scotch plaid; the former painted with a thick impasto . . . and the wheat field in the sun, which represents the extreme heat, very thick too." Van Gogh regarded this sun-drenched landscape as one of his "best" summer canvases. He immediately took up the motif in a reed pen drawing (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam) to give Theo a better sense of his recent work, and that autumn he painted two variants: a second version in oil of the same size (National Gallery, London), in which he aimed for a more concise and harmonious pictorial effect, and a smaller-scale replica (private collection) that was part of a choice group of "reductions" made especially for his mother and sister.

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