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| Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear 1889 oil on canvas 60 x 49 cm |
Van Gogh's flowers from 1887, including
Vase with Lilacs, Daisies and Anemones, show flowers in a blue vase set
against a soft blue and purple background. This was a period where van Gogh
consciously was trying to add colour to his painting. He wrote “I painted
almost nothing but flowers to accustom myself to a colour other than grey,
that’s to say pink, soft or bright green, light blue, violet, yellow, orange,
fine red.”
When he was painting in Arles, in the
south of France, he was looking forward to his friend Gauguin coming to live
and paint with him. In anticipation for his arrival Van Gogh painted Sunflowers
to decorate the house. Sunflowers became a series with many canvases
depicting the same subject matter. Painted in 1888 and 1889, van Gogh’s Sunflowers
show a yellow vase on a table containing yellow sunflowers in different stages
of life. Gauguin appreciated the gesture, and displayed some of van Gogh’s Sunflower
paintings in his bedroom.
After traumatic episodes in Arles, van
Gogh went to an asylum in Saint-Remy, France. In the first week he was there he
painted the irises in the asylums garden. He painted Irises as a study,
but when his brother Theo saw it he thought it was a marvellous painting
showing Vincent’s talent for composition and use of colour and entered it in
the Salon des Indépendants of 1889. Along with Sunflowers, Irises has
become one of van Gogh’s most enduring and popular paintings.
In the days before he left the asylum
he felt that he would not be having and mental upsets easily and wrote “I tell
you, as regards work, my mind feels absolutely serene and the brushstrokes come
to me and follow each other very logically.” Before he left, in May of 1890, he
painted Still Life, Vase with Roses.
The pink roses are shown contrasting
against a green table and yellow green background. Just as Sunflowers
has the emotion that van Gogh felt welcoming his friend Gauguin, Roses
has the optimism and hopefulness attached that Vincent felt as he was leaving
the asylum. Unfortunately van Gogh died just a few months later in July of 1890
from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
For more notes and for earlier works on
Van Gogh’s flower paintings see part 1 also.
This is part 2 of a 2-part post on the flower paintings of Vincent van Gogh:
This is part 2 of a 2-part post on the flower paintings of Vincent van Gogh:
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| 1887 Two Cut Sunflowers oil on canvas 43.2 x 61 cm |
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| 1887 Two Cut Sunflowers oil on canvas 50 x 60 cm |
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| 1887 Vase with Cornflower and Poppies oil on canvas 80 x 67 cm |
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| 1887 Vase with Daisies and Anemones oil on canvas 61 x 38 cm |
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| 1887 Vase with Lilacs, Daisies and Anemones oil on canvas 46.5 x 37.5 cm |
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| 1887 Vase with White and Red Carnations oil on canvas 58 x 45.5 cm |
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| 1888 Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass oil on canvas 24 x 19 cm |
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| 1888 Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass with a Book oil on canvas 24 x 19 cm |
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| 1888 Bowl with Daisies oil on canvas 33 x 42 cm |
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| 1888 Majolica Jug with Wildflowers oil on canvas 55 x 46 cm |
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| 1888 Oleanders and Books oil on canvas 60.3 x 73.6 cm |
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| 1888 Still Life with Zinnias oil on canvas 64 x 49.5 cm |
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| 1888 Still Life, Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers oil on canvas 95 x 73 cm |
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| 1888 Still Life, Vase with Oleanders and Books oil on canvas 60.3 x 73.6 cm |
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| 1888 Sunflowers oil on canvas 91 x 71 cm |
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| 1888 Three Sunflowers in a Vase oil on canvas 73 x 58 cm |
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| 1888 Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers oil on canvas 92.1 x 73 cm |
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| 1889 Irises oil on canvas 71 x 93 cm |
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| 1889 Still Life, Vase with Twelve Sunflowers oil on canvas 92 x 72.5 cm |
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| 1889 Still Life, Vase with Twelve Sunflowers oil on canvas |
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| 1889 The Iris oil on canvas 55 x 65 cm |
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| 1889 Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers oil on canvas 100.5 x 76.5 cm |
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| 1890 Flowers in a Vase oil on canvas 40 x 31.1 cm |
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| 1890 Irises oil on canvas 73.7 x 92.1 cm |
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| 1890 Japanese Vase with Roses and Anemones oil on canvas 51 x 51 cm |
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| 1890 Poppies and Butterflies oil on canvas 34.5 x 25.5 cm |
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| 1890 Red Poppies and Daisies oil on canvas 65 x 50 cm |
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| 1890 Roses and Beetle oil on canvas 33.5 x 24.5 cm |
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| 1890 Still Life with Irises oil on canvas 92 x 73.5 cm |
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| 1890 Still Life, Glass with Carnations oil on canvas 41 x 32 cm |
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| 1890 Still Life, Pink Roses in a Vase oil on canvas 92.6 x 73.7 cm |
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| 1890 Still Life, Vase with Flower and Thistles oil on canvas 41 x 34 cm |
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| 1890 Still Life, Vase with Rose-Mallows oil on canvas 42 x 29 cm |
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| 1890 Still Life, Vase with Roses oil on canvas 71 x 90 cm |
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| 1890 Still Life, Pink Roses oil on canvas 32 x 40.5 cm |
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| 1890 Wild Flowers and Thistles in a Vase oil on canvas 67 x 47 cm |
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| 1890 Wild Roses oil on canvas 24.5 x 33 cm |
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| Still Life, Vase with Five Sunflowers oil on canvas 98 x 69 cm ( destroyed by fire in WW2 ) |
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| Still Life, Vase with Twelve Sunflowers oil on canvas 91 x 72 cm |
