Van Gogh painted this country road not from nature, but from his imagination. He had first experimented with painting from his imagination in Arles, in imitation of Paul Gauguin, with whom he lived and worked for several weeks. Van Gogh used several of the motifs in this work – such as the cypresses, the yellow corn and the mountain in the background – in earlier paintings. These were motifs that he perceived as typical of Provence. For this reason the painting is seen as a summation of his impressions at Saint-Rémy.
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