July 9, 2026 — 6:11pmIn the centre of the painting is a figure wearing a hat, head tilted down. They’re standing in a field of golden wheat, completely engrossed in their work. When you move a bit closer, you can see that their left hand is holding a scythe – or maybe not. Maybe their hand is the scythe, work and worker merging into one.The striking thing about this work is not the scene being depicted, but the palpable energy of the artist and the details that are only visible in person. Move your head a little and you can see the thickness of the paint, how the worker is moving from two dimensions into three. Stand a little closer and you can see that the paint of the hat, early in the painting’s life, has been slightly squashed.Vincent van Gogh: Wheat Fields with Reaper, Auvers, 1890, oil on canvas.Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey;Toledo Museum of ArtVincent van Gogh’s Wheat Fields with Reaper, Auvers is one of the 57 works that have arrived at Art Gallery of South Australia for Monet to Matisse: Defying Tradition, the first in a planned series of four winter art exhibitions for the gallery.All 57 works belong to the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, and the bulk of them have never been displayed in Australia. With the TMA undergoing extensive renovations and re-installations, this presented the rare opportunity for many their prized works to go on tour.There isn’t really a narrative through-line to this exhibition, but there doesn’t need to be. It’s a collection of 57 works by artists who broke boundaries and mastered their craft, and it’s a unique joy to see them in person. What makes Adelaide’s version of this travelling exhibition special is the 30 additional works drawn from AGSA’s own collection.Every room features familiar names and familiar works, but it’s the details in the works that are lost in a photo or video that stand out. The line that is slightly painted over in the Mondrian. The detail of an earring in a Renoir.Henri Matisse, born Le Cateau-Cambresis (now Le Cateau), France 1869, died Nice, France 1954.