Vincent van Gogh is known as a Dutch post-Impressionist painter, tormented genius of art, who had a very special relationship with sunflowers .
Although the artist’s series of s unflowers had difficulties during his lifetime, in the contemporary world, they are definitely the most instantly recognizable artworks.
During a brief stay at the Yellow House, Gauguin painted Vincent at work in a canvas entitled “The Painter of Sunflowers”.
Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh painting Sunflowers (1888) , Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Report
Van Gogh painted 11 works in which sunflowers are the primary subject, and more in which they play a role. One was destroyed in a fire in Japan during an Allied bombing of Osaka during World War II.
wikipedia.org Report
The Sunflowers series is closely related to the Yellow House where the artist rented 4 rooms. His plan was to turn the yellow corner-building into an artists’ house, where like-minded painters could live and work together. Van Gogh planned to decorate the place with his sunflower paintings.
Vincent van Gogh, The Yellow House (1888) , Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Report
Yellow was a favourite colour of Vincent Van Gogh that lived in most of his paintings - sunflowers, wheat ears, landscapes at harvest time, and in the light of the sun. From the stay in Arles onward, yellow became increasingly important in the paintings of the artist.
Vincent Van Gogh, Wheatfield With a Reaper (1889) , Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Report
Van Gogh wasn’t the only one inspired by sunflowers. William Blake in the late 1700s, Claude Monet in 1881 and Allen Ginsberg in 1955 are some of the other well-known artists and poets who highlighted the image of sunflowers.
Claude Monet, The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil (1881) , Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection Report
Vincent celebrated the completion of his Sunflowers with a shopping spree. The artist started his series of Sunflowers on Monday 20 August 1888 and finished on the Friday. Right after, he went for a shopping expedition in town, after which he returned with a black velvet jacket and a famous large yellow straw hat. Both items appear to be hanging behind his bed in the painting Van Gogh made of his bedroom two months later.
Vincent van Gogh, The Bedroom (1888) , Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Report
The first series, executed in Paris in 1887, depicts the flowers lying on the ground, while the second set, made a year later in Arles, shows a bouquet of sunflowers in a vase.
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers Gone to Seed (1887) , Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers (1888) Report
One of the original works of “Sunflowers” is part of the collection of the National Gallery of London and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once asked to see Van Gogh’s chrysanthemums. Nobody thought to correct her.
The National Gallery, London Report
During their 1st meeting in Paris in 1887, Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin exchanged a couple of paintings: Van Gogh gave his two studies of sunflowers and Gauguin his artwork “On the Shore of the Lake, Martinique (Negresses)” from 1887.
Vincent van Gogh, Two Sunflowers (1887) , Paul Gauguin, On the Banks of the River, Martinique (1887) Report
Van Gogh did not actually paint the flowers in a pot because it was not steady enough to hold the heavy flowers and would have toppled over. It’s assumed that the artist had a similar pot in his kitchen-studio to serve as his model, but the 15 sunflowers were not actually placed in it.
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Report
In 1901, Gauguin, in Tahiti, painted four still-lifes of sunflowers resting on a chair as a salute to his long-departed friend Van Gogh. Gauguin had grown the flowers with seeds imported from France.
Paul Gauguin, Still Life with Sunflowers on an armchair (1901) , Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia Report
Vincent Van Gogh’s sunflowers caused a huge scandal in the 1890 Les XX exhibition - an invitation-only show exclusively for members in Brussels, Belgium. Two days before the opening, Henry de Groux announced that his works would not be seen side by side with the “abominable Pot of Sunflowers by Monsieur Vincent or any other agent provocateur”. At the opening dinner, De Groux once again attacked Van Gogh’s paintings and called him “an ignoramus and a charlatan”.
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers (1888) , The National Gallery, London Report
A week before starting on the paintings, Van Gogh drew sunflowers in the garden of a bathhouse in the brothel quarter.
Vincent van Gogh, Garden of a Bathhouse (1888) , Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Report
After Vincent’s tragic demise, his doctor, Paul Gachet, drew a poignant single sunflower. For the ones close to Vincent, the flower that turns towards the sun had already become inextricably linked with the artist.
Dr Paul Gachet, The Sunflower (August 1890) , Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Report
Van Gogh used to create the vivid sunflowers in his art with a bright, intense yellow cadmium pigment that was first developed in the mid-19th century.
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers (1888) , Neue Pinakothek München Report
Van Gogh shifted his colour palette towards a lighter yellow palette starting in 1888. The researchers believe that it happened due to illness/medication leading to “yellow vision” or influence from the French Impressionists while working in Paris.
Artnome Report
Jo Bonger, Theo’s widow, had a romantic affair with the Dutch painter Isaac Israëls in the mid-1890s. In 1918 she lent him the Sunflowers with a yellow background. Israëls hung it in his sitting room and included it in paintings with various models (but not Jo).
Isaac Israëls, Woman before Sunflowers by van Gogh (1917) , Museum de Fundatie Report
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