The Wheat Field with a Reaper was started in the summer before a bout of illness and completed in September.[13] Here Van Gogh depicts a reaper in a sun-drenched wheat field. Referring to a Biblical metaphor, Van Gogh wrote of the meaning of this painting, "In this reaper – a vague figure laboring like the devil in the terrible heat to finish his task – I saw an image of death, in the sense that the wheat being reaped represented mankind... But there is nothing sad in this death, it takes place in broad daylight, under a sun that bathes everything in a fine, golden light."[14]