Just like other painters working at the time, Vincent made flower still lifes. But he did things a little differently. After practising with different flowers, he chose a specific variety: the sunflower. His fellow painters thought that sunflowers were perhaps somewhat coarse and unrefined. But this is exactly what Vincent liked, and he also enjoyed painting flowers that had gone to seed. He gave sunflowers the lead role in several paintings.
The sunflower piece of art
Vincent van Gogh painted this luminous image of sunflowers from memory, in the depths of winter in 1889. Throughout his ten-year career, Van Gogh painted sunflowers repeatedly in different arrangements and settings. The shapes, colors, and cheerfulness of the modest flower appealed to him. He associated its yellow color with sunshine, the south, and Christ, the light of the world. Over a single week in August 1888, Van Gogh painted four pictures of sunflowers, including a bold canvas of twelve sunflowers against a turquoise ground, now in the Neue Pinakothek, Munich. The speed of this work was driven by enthusiasm and necessity since the flowers were destined to wilt and fade. This painting is a variation on the work now in Munich. Far from being a simple copy, it is a new interpretation that gives each flower a pronounced personality.
Gallery 261, European Art 1850-1900, second floor (Resnick Rotunda)
Object Details
| Title : | Sunflowers |
| Date : | 1889 |
| Artist : | Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890) |
| Medium : | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions : | 36 3/8 × 28 inches (92.4 × 71.1 cm) |
| Classification : | Paintings |
| Credit Line : | The Mr. and Mrs. Carroll S. Tyson, Jr., Collection, 1963 |
| Accession Number : | 1963-116-19 |
| Geography : | Made in Arles, France, Europe |
Provenance
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Gallery 261, European Art 1850-1900, second floor (Resnick Rotunda)
There are 5 different versions of Sunflowers in a vase
Vincent is famous in all corners of the globe for his painting of sunflowers in a vase. But many people do not realise that he made multiple versions of this painting. These five artworks are now found at museums all around the world, from Tokyo to Amsterdam.
In addition to these five famous versions of Sunflowers, he painted another two versions. One is in private hands, and the other painting was unfortunately lost during World War II.
Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings were colour experiments
Vincent started painting flower still lifes to experiment with colour. Flower still lifes also sold well, which was another reason to paint them. Once Vincent had seen the fresh, colourful paintings of the Impressionists in Paris, he also wanted to introduce more colour into his work.
His initial flower still lifes still had traditional colours, but Vincent tried out increasingly more extreme colour contrasts.
Vincent decorated Gauguin’s room with his sunflower paintings
Vincent made his first still lifes of sunflowers in Paris. The painter Paul Gauguin was impressed by them. Vincent was very honoured to hear this. He had recently got to know Gauguin and looked up to him. For precisely this painter to appreciate his work confirmed his feeling that he was on the right track.
Not long after, Vincent moved to the South of France. He wanted to establish an artists’ community there: a place where artists could live and work, and inspire each other. When he heard that Gauguin would actually be coming, he painted several still lifes of sunflowers with which he decorated the guest bedroom. Gauguin called the paintings ‘completely Vincent’.
