17 Interesting Facts Behind The Sunflowery Masterpieces Of Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh is known as a Dutch post-Impressionist painter, tormented genius of art, who had a very special relationship with sunflowers.

Although the artist's series of sunflowers had difficulties during his lifetime, in the contemporary world, they are definitely the most instantly recognizable artworks.

Image credits: Van Gogh Museum

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17 Interesting Facts Behind The Sunflowery Masterpieces Of Vincent Van Gogh During a brief stay at the Yellow House, Gauguin painted Vincent at work in a canvas entitled "The Painter of Sunflowers".

Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh painting Sunflowers (1888) , Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Report

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17 Interesting Facts Behind The Sunflowery Masterpieces Of Vincent Van Gogh Van Gogh painted 11 works in which sunflowers are the primary subject, and more in which they play a role. One was destroyed in a fire in Japan during an Allied bombing of Osaka during World War II.

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17 Interesting Facts Behind The Sunflowery Masterpieces Of Vincent Van Gogh The Sunflowers series is closely related to the Yellow House where the artist rented 4 rooms. His plan was to turn the yellow corner-building into an artists’ house, where like-minded painters could live and work together. Van Gogh planned to decorate the place with his sunflower paintings.

Vincent van Gogh, The Yellow House (1888) , Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Report

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Vincent van Gogh wanted to be known as the painter of sunflowers. In a letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh boldly declared, “The sunflower is mine”.

The other painters at the time thought that sunflowers were coarse and unrefined but that was exactly what Vincent was attracted to: he saw eternal and fascinating beauty in those imperfections. For the artist, sunflowers also communicated gratitude and happiness, radiating with the energy and vitality of the sun.

17 Interesting Facts Behind The Sunflowery Masterpieces Of Vincent Van Gogh Yellow was a favourite colour of Vincent Van Gogh that lived in most of his paintings - sunflowers, wheat ears, landscapes at harvest time, and in the light of the sun. From the stay in Arles onward, yellow became increasingly important in the paintings of the artist.

Vincent Van Gogh, Wheatfield With a Reaper (1889) , Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Report

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17 Interesting Facts Behind The Sunflowery Masterpieces Of Vincent Van Gogh Van Gogh wasn't the only one inspired by sunflowers. William Blake in the late 1700s, Claude Monet in 1881 and Allen Ginsberg in 1955 are some of the other well-known artists and poets who highlighted the image of sunflowers.

Claude Monet, The Artist's Garden at Vétheuil (1881) , Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection Report

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It was in Arles, in the Yellow House, where the great sunflower period of Vincent van Gogh began: "I'm thinking of decorating my studio with half a dozen paintings of sunflowers," he said at the time.

He went on to do just that by painting at least 11 of the ones that we know of, some of which are now lost. Another interesting fact for you is that across 11 paintings, there are a total of 87 sunflowers.

17 Interesting Facts Behind The Sunflowery Masterpieces Of Vincent Van Gogh Vincent celebrated the completion of his Sunflowers with a shopping spree. The artist started his series of Sunflowers on Monday 20 August 1888 and finished on the Friday. Right after, he went for a shopping expedition in town, after which he returned with a black velvet jacket and a famous large yellow straw hat. Both items appear to be hanging behind his bed in the painting Van Gogh made of his bedroom two months later.

Vincent van Gogh, The Bedroom (1888) , Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Report

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17 Interesting Facts Behind The Sunflowery Masterpieces Of Vincent Van Gogh The first series, executed in Paris in 1887, depicts the flowers lying on the ground, while the second set, made a year later in Arles, shows a bouquet of sunflowers in a vase.

Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers Gone to Seed (1887) , Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers (1888) Report

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17 Interesting Facts Behind The Sunflowery Masterpieces Of Vincent Van Gogh One of the original works of "Sunflowers" is part of the collection of the National Gallery of London and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once asked to see Van Gogh's chrysanthemums. Nobody thought to correct her.

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Vincent was very conscious about using the complementary color scheme in his paintings to achieve harmony throughout each piece. Almost 90% of his paintings used blue and yellow as complementary colors. "Arranging colours in a painting," Van Gogh wrote to his sister Wil, "to make them shimmer and stand out through their contrasts, that's something like arranging jewels or designing costumes."

Yellow was one of artist’s favourite ones. He used bright yellows early in his career, adding other hues like ochre and cadmium yellow later on.

17 Interesting Facts Behind The Sunflowery Masterpieces Of Vincent Van Gogh During their 1st meeting in Paris in 1887, Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin exchanged a couple of paintings: Van Gogh gave his two studies of sunflowers and Gauguin his artwork "On the Shore of the Lake, Martinique (Negresses)" from 1887.

Vincent van Gogh, Two Sunflowers (1887) , Paul Gauguin, On the Banks of the River, Martinique (1887) Report

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17 Interesting Facts Behind The Sunflowery Masterpieces Of Vincent Van Gogh Van Gogh did not actually paint the flowers in a pot because it was not steady enough to hold the heavy flowers and would have toppled over. It's assumed that the artist had a similar pot in his kitchen-studio to serve as his model, but the 15 sunflowers were not actually placed in it.

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Report

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Van Gogh had a deep admiration for Claude Monet; therefore, it's possible to see some influences such as powerful and expressive color palette and quality of impassioned drawing that are much more apparent in the flower paintings.

Monet painted a vase loaded with sunflowers about seven or eight years before Vincent van Gogh painted his series. Yet Monet focused more on the composition as a whole, and unlike Van Gogh, he painted the sunflowers with no sign of decay.

The flower that always turns towards the sun became a signature of the short yet truly remarkable career of Vincent van Gogh.

After the tragic day, Vincent's doctor, Paul Gachet, made a symbolic drawing inscribed “Le Tournesol” (The Sunflower), as well as planting sunflowers on the grave, while as a tribute to his lost friend, fellow artist Paul Gauguin grew sunflowers in Polynesia as well.

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17 Interesting Facts Behind The Sunflowery Masterpieces Of Vincent Van Gogh In 1901, Gauguin, in Tahiti, painted four still-lifes of sunflowers resting on a chair as a salute to his long-departed friend Van Gogh. Gauguin had grown the flowers with seeds imported from France.

Paul Gauguin, Still Life with Sunflowers on an armchair (1901) , Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia Report

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17 Interesting Facts Behind The Sunflowery Masterpieces Of Vincent Van Gogh Vincent Van Gogh's sunflowers caused a huge scandal in the 1890 Les XX exhibition - an invitation-only show exclusively for members in Brussels, Belgium. Two days before the opening, Henry de Groux announced that his works would not be seen side by side with the "abominable Pot of Sunflowers by Monsieur Vincent or any other agent provocateur". At the opening dinner, De Groux once again attacked Van Gogh's paintings and called him "an ignoramus and a charlatan".

Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers (1888) , The National Gallery, London Report

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17 Interesting Facts Behind The Sunflowery Masterpieces Of Vincent Van Gogh A week before starting on the paintings, Van Gogh drew sunflowers in the garden of a bathhouse in the brothel quarter.