Farmyard with live dove, is one of two large triptychs created by Raveel in the first half of the 1960s, the other being Terrible, beautiful life (1965). It is a picturesque and considerably complex work, a moving painting full of tension and contrast in an idiosyncratic world. The cage with the live pigeon – no longer placed in the work today – engages in a dialogue with the painted pigeon, depicted flying to its right, while the immense blue breaks through the earthiness of the three panels. The suggestion of poles – vertical elements found in most of Raveel’s works – reinforces the sense of space and the feeling of the painting overflowing into its surroundings. Bright, crisp colours contrast with dull and muddy colours. This work marks the end of Raveel’s poetic-abstract period: from now on, he will start to combine abstract zones with the concrete, figurative motifs he used up until the mid-1950s.