Vincent Van Gogh | The flowers

Vincent Van Gogh painted several versions of landscapes with flowers, as seen in View of Arles with Irises, and paintings of flowers, including Irises, Sunflowers, lilacs and roses.

Some reflect his interests in the language of color, and also in Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints.

He completed two series of sunflowers: the first while he was in Paris in 1887, and the second during his stay in Arles the following year.

The first series shows living flowers in the ground.

In the second series, they are dying in vases.

The 1888 paintings were created during a rare period of optimism for the artist.

He intended them to decorate a bedroom where Paul Gauguin 1848-1903 was supposed to stay in Arles that August, when the two would create the community of artists Van Gogh had long hoped for.

The flowers are rendered with thick brushstrokes impasto and heavy layers of paint.

In an august 1888 letter to Theo, Vincent Van Gogh wrote:

"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".