“Sunflowers” by Vincent van Gogh

“Sunflowers” by Vincent van Gogh, was painted in 1888 and is one of four sunflower paintings in his “Arles Sunflowers” series. Sunflowers were symbolic of happiness for Van Gogh.

The “Arles Sunflowers” series was painted in Arles and was intended to decorate Gauguin’s room in the house that he had rented in the South of France.

He and Gauguin worked there together for three months. “Sunflowers” was the painting that Van Gogh was most proud of, and it is one of Van Gogh’s most famous works and one of the most reproduced.

In this painting, the flowers are built up with thick brushstrokes to evoke the texture of the seed-heads. Van Gogh wrote to his brother:

“I am working at it every morning from sunrise on,
for the flowers fade so quickly.
I am now in the fourth picture of sunflowers.
This fourth one is a bunch of 14 flowers … it gives a singular effect.”

This painting was created during a period of optimism when Van Gogh awaited the arrival of his hero, the avant-garde painter Paul Gauguin.

The lonely painter dreamed of establishing an artist community with Gauguin as its mentor.

Sunflowers Series by Van Gogh

Sunflowers is the name of two distinct series of still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh.

The first series was painted in Paris in 1887 and depicted the flowers lying on the ground. While the second set, created a year later in Arles, shows a bouquet of sunflowers in a vase.

In 1889, Van Gogh created three additional repetitions of his Sunflowers. Two of which are replicas of this version of Sunflowers.

The “Arles Sunflowers” series includes the following four versions:

“Three Sunflowers” – turquoise background – Private collection in NY
“Six Sunflowers” – royal-blue background – destroyed by fire in World War II in Japan
“Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers” – blue-green background- Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany
“Sunflowers” – yellow background – National Gallery, London, England

The 1889 Repetitions include:

“Vase with twelve sunflowers” – repetition of the 3rd version – Philadelphia Museum of Art
“Sunflowers” – repetition of the 4th version (yellow background) – Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
“Sunflowers” – a replica of the 4th version (yellow-green background) – Sompo Japan Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan.

Three Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh, 1888 – Private Collection

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. Van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime and was considered a madman and a failure.

He created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life.

They were characterized by bold colors and dramatic, impulsive, and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art.

The Origin of Vincent Van Gogh’s famous sunflowers

Facts about Vincent van Gogh

Van Gogh was born in the Netherlands
Initially, van Gogh planned to be a pastor and worked as a lay preacher in Belgium. It was only on being let go from this job that he decided that his future lay in painting.
Van Gogh didn’t start painting until he was 27 years old.
Van Gogh never received any formal art training.
Van Gogh’s brother, Theo, worked in an art gallery and introduced van Gogh to many artworks.
Van Gogh visited many parts of Europe, including the Netherlands, France, Belgium, and England.
Japanese woodblock prints profoundly influenced Van Gogh. He collected pictures of Japanese woodblock prints, and he practiced making copies.
Van Gogh had several close relationships with many fellow artists, including Paul Gaugin and Emile Bernard.
Van Gogh’s artistic career was only ten years.
Van Gogh was a prolific letter writer, especially to his brother.
He created over 900 paintings plus many more drawings and sketches.
He died at the age of 37
As a poor artist, van Gogh didn’t have money to pay for models, so he painted himself instead. He created hundreds of self-portraits.
Van Gogh considered himself and many of his paintings to be failures.
Van Gogh cut off his ear in 1888.
Experts believe that that Gaugin cut off Van Gogh’s ear, following a violent dispute and that they both conspired to blame it on van Gogh so that Gaugin would not be jailed.
Van Gogh wrapped up his removed ear and gave it to a prostitute in a nearby brothel.
Van Gogh suffered mental health challenges for many years, and in 1889 he voluntarily admitted himself to a psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy.
Van Gogh spent a year in the hospital, from which he created some of his most well-known paintings.
Van Gogh spent his adult life in poverty, surviving on cheap food. His diet consisted mainly of bread and coffee; he drank alcohol excessively and always had his pipe in hand.
After leaving the asylum, Van Gogh’s mental health continued to deteriorate, and in 1890, he shot himself in the chest. He died two days later.
There is speculation that Van Gogh did not shoot himself but that he was shot in a prank that went wrong. Van Gogh protected the identity of who shot him, by claiming that he shot himself.
Only 37 years old when he died, he had just sold one painting in his lifetime.
On his deathbed, van Gogh’s last words to his brother were, “the sadness will last forever.”
Van Gogh’s brother died very soon after Van Gogh’s death.

Sunflowers

Title: Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers
Deutsch: Stilleben mit Sonnenblumen
Français: Nature morte: Vase avec quatorze tournesols
Artist: Vincent van Gogh
Year: 1888
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions 92.1 cm × 73 cm (36.2 in × 28.7 in)
Museum: The National Gallery, London

Vincent van Gogh, ‘Sunflowers’

5 Surprising facts about Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers

Vincent Willem van Gogh

Name: Vincent Willem van Gogh
Born: 1853 – Zundert, Netherlands
Died: 1890 (aged 37) – Auvers-sur-Oise, France
Resting place: Cimetière d’Auvers-sur-Oise, Auvers-sur-Oise, France
Nationality: Dutch
Movement: Post-Impressionism
Notable works:
- Starry Night
- Starry Night Over the Rhône
- Sunflowers
- Irises (Getty Museum)
- Self Portrait, dedicated to Paul Gauguin
- Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin
- White House at Night
- The Night Café
- Self-Portrait as a Painter
- Self Portrait with Felt Hat
- Green Wheat Field with Cypress
- The Raising of Lazarus
- Self-Portrait ‘Mutilated Ear

Vincent van Gogh Sunflowers

Vincent Van Gogh London and Amsterdam Sunflowers side by side Explore The National Gallery

13th Century Paintings

“The Virgin and Child Enthroned, with Narrative Scenes” by Margarito d’Arezzo – 1264
“The Virgin and Child” by Master of the Clarisse – 1268
“Crucifix” by Master of Saint Francis – 1270

14th Century Paintings

Wilton Diptych – 1395
“The Annunciation” by Duccio – 1311
“The Healing of the Man Born Blind” by Duccio – 1311

15th Century Paintings

“Arnolfini Portrait” by Jan van Eyck – 1434
“The Battle of San Romano” by Paolo Uccello– 1440
“Venus and Mars” by Sandro Botticelli – 1483
“Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan” by Giovanni Bellini– 1501

16th Century Paintings

“Virgin of the Rocks” by Leonardo da Vinci – 1506
“The Madonna of the Pinks” by Raphael – 1507
“The Raising of Lazarus” by Sebastiano del Piombo– 1519
“Salvator Mundi” by Andrea Previtali – 1519
“Bacchus and Ariadne” by Titian – 1523
“The Ambassadors” by Hans Holbein the Younger – 1533
“Mary Magdalene” by Girolamo Savoldo – 1540
“Saint George and the Dragon” by Tintoretto – 1558
“The Family of Darius before Alexander” by Paolo Veronese – 1567
“Diana and Actaeon” by Titian – 1569
“The Rape of Europa” by Paolo Veronese – 1570
“The Death of Actaeon” by Titian – 1575
“The Origin of the Milky Way” by Tintoretto – 1575

Van Gogh and the Sunflowers

17th Century Paintings

“Supper at Emmaus” by Caravaggio – 1601
“Samson and Delilah” by Peter Paul Rubens – 1610
“The Judgement of Paris” by Peter Paul Rubens – 1635
“Aurora abducting Cephalus” by Peter Paul Rubens – 1637
“Equestrian Portrait of Charles I” by Anthony van Dyck – 1638
“Venus at her Mirror” by Diego Velázquez – 1651
“Self Portrait at the Age of 63” by Rembrandt – 1669
“A Young Woman standing at a Virginal” by Johannes Vermeer – 1670

18th Century Paintings

“Bacchus and Ariadne” by Sebastiano Ricci – 1713
“A Regatta on the Grand Canal” by Canaletto – 1740
“Mr. and Mrs. Andrews” by Thomas Gainsborough – 1749
“Eton College” by Canaletto – 1754
“An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump” by Joseph Wright of Derby – 1768
“Self-portrait in a Straw Hat” by Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun – 1782

Vincent Van Gogh Sunflowers

19th Century Paintings

“The Emperor Napoleon I” by Horace Vernet – 1815
“Dido Building Carthage” by J. M. W. Turner – 1815
“Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows” by John Constable – 1831
“The Execution of Lady Jane Grey” by Paul Delaroche – 1833
“The Fighting Temeraire” by Joseph Mallord William Turner – 1839
“Rain, Steam, and Speed – The Great Western Railway” by J. M. W. Turner – 1844
“Cimabue’s Celebrated Madonna is carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence” by Frederic Leighton – 1855
“Madame Moitessier” by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres– 1856
“The Gare St-Lazare” by Claude Monet – 1877
“Bathers at Asnières” by Georges Seurat – 1884
“Sunflowers” by Vincent van Gogh – 1888
“After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself” by Edgar Degas – 1895
“Boulevard Montmartre at Night” by Camille Pissarro – 1898