Kees van Dongen: The Corn Poppy 1919
“In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,” says the dead soldier in the well-known war poem, was written by John McCrae in 1915.
Indeed, this is the nature of the poppies, growing between the wheat fields, the cornfields, and the crosses row on row. They can live anywhere where the winds blow them. Poppies are common creatures, only wayside weeds, but beautiful, spirited ones! They are poor and thin but they have vivid, nice-looking red petal hat and big, black eyes. Corn Poppy is the queen of the wheat fields, a shining star among the barren weeds, a tiny little beauty in the soul’s grey crowd.
She has to be very careful with the world; she is fragile and easily bruised. That is why she has those enormous black eyes; to watch and survive. You can see the poppies delicate silhouette everywhere, sitting in their simple grey coat, looking through their shoulders with their intense black eyes, and with their forceful red hat on. Red, red, red, like the blood of the dead soldiers.