Vincent seemed fascinated by that huge area closed by the Monticules of La Crau: “the appeal of these vast countries upon me is most powerful”.
He said he went there more than fifty times to “admire that big flat area”.
He made numerous drawings there then paintings he’s particularly proud of:
“According to me, the two views of La Crau and of the country surrounding the Rhone banks are those I best achieved with my pen.”
Indeed, those remind him of his childhood:
“how much the Camargue and La Crau, apart from a difference of colour and pureness of atmosphere, remind me of the ancient Holland of Ruysdael ‘s time”.
He describes the following drawing to Theo and his friend Emile Bernard:
“ achieved big drawings with my pen, a huge flat country, seen as the crow flies from the top of a hill- vineyards, ploughed wheat fields. All these multiplying without end, running as if on the surface of the sea towards the horizon closed by the Monticules of La Crau”.
To his friend Mouries, who was a sailor, Vincent said that this landscape was “as beautiful as the sea”. Mouries thinks that “it’s even more beautiful than the sea since inhabited”…