Wheat Field with Cypresses

The Met's 1889 version, Gallery 822 Upstairs in the 19th-century European galleries, Van Gogh's cypress flickers up the canvas like a dark flame over gold wheat and swirling clouds. He painted it outdoors near Saint-Rémy in the summer of 1889, a year before his death, and the paint is thick enough to read every stroke from a step away. It is not huge, so get close. The neighboring rooms hold more Impressionist and Post-Impressionist favorites if you are ahead of schedule.