In this landscape, the old tower in Nyuenen is imprinted. The former church was in a dilapidated state, and it had long been planned to be demolished. Lonely rising among the fields, next to the old village cemetery, she became for Van Gogh the symbol of a dying faith that lost its former importance in everyday human life.
The entire foreground of the picture occupies a wide wheat field. The silhouette of the old church stands alone on the horizon, gradually disappearing into the twilight of the approaching night. The black-blue distance is devoid of signs of human presence, there is not a single light in it, and a lonely figure seems to be heading for nothing along a wide path.
Van Gogh uses muffled shades of cobalt, yellow and red ocher, smoothly turning into each other due to soft feathering. Wheat ears seem to begin to dissolve in the dark, gradually losing their clear outlines. Evening twilight lighting deepens the shadows and makes them almost black. But, despite the limited color range, the landscape looks amazingly alive and atmospheric.
Van Gogh perfectly succeeded in conveying a state gradually going to sleep nature. The smooth horizontal lines of the composition create a mood of calm contemplation. Only the sharp spire of the tower, directed toward the sky, violates this rhythm. Its shape and color echo with the silhouette of a black female figure dressed in black.
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