Vincent van Gogh Painting Sunflowers

Vincent van Gogh Painting Sunflowers is a portrait of Vincent van Gogh painted by Paul Gauguin in Arles in December 1888, during the brief period when the two artists shared the so-called Yellow House. Van Gogh is shown seated before an easel, probably working on his sunflower series, although the scene was set at a time when the flowers were no longer in bloom, which suggests Gauguin composed the picture largely from memory and added details drawn from life afterwards. Gauguin had come to Arles at Van Gogh's urging, as Van Gogh hoped to build a community of artists, but differences of temperament and of views on art created constant friction between them. The canvas was sent to Theo van Gogh only days before the episode in which Vincent cut off his ear, and the portrait reflects that tense atmosphere.

The composition is unusual. The scene is viewed from above, the centre is almost empty, and the framing crops the picture to Van Gogh, his palette, the easel and the table with the vase of sunflowers. The face is elongated with flat features, and many historians read this distortion as a sign of the painter's deteriorating mental state rather than a literal likeness. Elements from other works can be recognised in the background, such as the blue walls of the bedroom in Arles, the chair Van Gogh sits in, and a painting by Gauguin, probably Blue Trees. The coarse canvas and the thin, relatively dry layers of paint give the surface a grainy texture.

The picture matters because it captures a relationship between two artists who influenced each other yet followed different paths. Gauguin, already moving beyond Impressionism, valued synthesis and memory, while Van Gogh championed working directly from nature. Years later, settled in Polynesia, Gauguin painted several still lifes with sunflowers as a tribute to and a memory of his former companion. Today the canvas is held by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Painter

Paul Gauguin

Date

1888

Medium

oil paint, hessian

Dimensions

73 × 91 cm

Museum

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Movement

Post-impressionism

Genre

portrait

Depicts

painter, common sunflower, vase, paintbrush, painting, palette, canvas, Vincent van Gogh

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