It was painted in late autumn, and Van Gogh wrote to his friend Émile Bernard: "Such subjects certainly have a fine melancholy, but then it is fun to work in rather wild places, where one has to dig one's easel in between the stones lest the wind should blow the whole caboodle over."[1]
The following spring Van Gogh sent it to Paris, where Paul Gauguin admired the painting and responded saying: "In subjects from nature you are the only one who thinks. I talked about it with your brother, and there is one that I would like to trade with you for one of mine of your choice.[1] The one I am talking about is a mountain landscape. Two travelers, very small, seem to be climbing there in search of the unknown…Here and there, red touches like lights, the whole in a violet tone. It is beautiful and grandiose."[2]
Later another Van Gogh painting, Wild Vegetation, was discovered underneath as it had been painted over by the Dutchman.[3] The work is now in the permanent collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, most recently displayed at Gallery 244, "Dutch and Flemish Art".[4]
