Vase with Irises

Vase with Irises is an oil painting on canvas that Vincent van Gogh made around 1889 or 1890. The sources available do not agree on the date, so it is best taken with some caution. The work is kept at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. It is linked to the period when the painter was admitted to a psychiatric clinic in Saint-Rémy, a town near Arles, during which he worked intensively on the subject of flowers.

The most striking feature of the composition is the way the bouquet fills almost the entire picture surface. The dense blooms and their thick stems press against the edges of the canvas, while the vase plays a secondary role. Van Gogh uses very few shadows, so the sense of volume comes from colour and from the firm outline of each flower.

This approach connects with the influence of Japanese prints, a subject that held the artist's interest for much of his career and that was very fashionable among the society of his time. Within the group of flower still lifes to which it belongs, which includes other vases with roses, cornflowers and poppies, the same pursuit of simplicity and decorative force can be seen.

There is also a very similar version, with the same title though also known as Vase with Iris, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Comparing the two allows us to see how the painter returned to a single motif to explore variations in colour and composition.

Painter

Vincent van Gogh

Date

1890

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

92 × 74 cm

Museum

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Genre

floral painting

Depicts

bouquet, Iris, vase

Share:FacebookWhatsApp