■ Happy 161st Birthday, Vincent Van Gogh! ■ Sunflowers - Vincent Willem van Gogh Sunflowers (original title, in French: Tournesols) are the subject of two series of still life paintings by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. The earlier series executed in Paris in 1887 depicts the flowers lying on the ground, while the second set executed a year later in Arles shows bouquets of sunflowers in a vase. In the artists mind both sets were linked by the name of his friend Paul Gauguin, who acquired two of the Paris versions. About eight months later Van Gogh hoped to welcome and to impress Gauguin again with Sunflowers, now part of the painted décoration that he prepared for the guest-room of his Yellow House, where Gauguin was supposed to stay in Arles. After Gauguins departure, Van Gogh imagined the two major versions as wings of the Berceuse Triptych, and finally he included them in his exhibit at Les XX in Bruxelles. Little is known of Van Goghs activities during the two years he lived with his brother Theo in Paris, 1886-1888. The fact that he had painted Sunflowers already is only revealed in spring 1889, when Gauguin claimed one of the Arles versions in exchange for studies he had left behind after leaving Arles for Paris. Van Gogh was upset and replied that Gauguin had absolutely no right to make this request: I am definitely keeping my sunflowers in question. He has two of them already, let that hold him. And if he is not satisfied with the exchange he has made with me, he can take back his little Martinique canvas, and his self-portrait sent me from Brittany, at the same time giving me back both my portrait and the two sunflower canvases which he has taken to Paris. So if he ever broaches this subject again, Ive told you just how matters stand. The two Sunflowers in question show two buttons each; one of them was preceded by a small study, and a fourth large canvas combines both compositions. These were Van Goghs first paintings with nothing but sunflowers—yet, he had already included sunflowers in still life and landscape earlier. --- Image: Sunflowers - Vincent van Gogh ◌ Year: 1888 ◌ Type: Oil on canvas ◌ Dimensions: 92.1 cm × 73 cm (36.2 in × 28.7 in) ◌ Location: National Gallery, London This is one of four paintings of sunflowers dating from August and September 1888. Van Gogh intended to decorate Gauguins 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 wont surprise you when you know that what Im 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. nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/vincent-van-gogh-sunflowers ---
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 01:59:27 +0000
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