Van Gogh’s incredible sunflower series warrants a discussion on its own. While so many of Van Gogh’s works are instantly recognizable to anyone in the world, it may be his sunflower series which are the most famous of his works. Though Vincent had used sunflowers as a subject of his painting as early as 1886, the majority of his bold and beautiful sunflower series were painted in 1888 in Arles, in the hopes of pleasing Paul Gauguin upon his arrival at the “Yellow House”.
Painting: Sunflowers
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 92.1 x 73 cm
Year: 1888
Artist: Vincent VAN GOGH
This is one of four paintings of sunflowers dating from August and September 1888. Van Gogh intended to decorate Gauguin’s room with these paintings in the so-called Yellow House that he rented in Arles in the South of France. He and Gauguin worked there together between October and December 1888.
Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo in August 1888, ‘I am hard at it, painting with the enthusiasm of a Marseillais eating bouillabaisse, which won’t surprise you when you know that what I’m at is the painting of some sunflowers. If I carry out this idea there will be a dozen panels. So the whole thing will be a symphony in blue and yellow. I am working at it every morning from sunrise on, for the flowers fade so quickly. I am now on the fourth picture of sunflowers. This fourth one is a bunch of 14 flowers … it gives a singular effect.’
The dying flowers are built up with thick brushstrokes (impasto). The impasto evokes the texture of the seed-heads. Van Gogh produced a replica of this painting in January 1889, and perhaps another one later in the year. The various versions and replicas remain much debated among Van Gogh scholars.
When I saw Vincent Van Gogh’s painting “Sunflowers“, I was attracted by its bright colors and the flowers full of vitality. Van Gogh had painted several sizes of “Sunflowers”, and the 15 flowers are the most famous paintings. He threw his own deep feelings into his painting heart and soul.
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