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Sunflowers (series of paintings)
Encyclopedia
Sunflowers are the subject of two series
of still life
paintings by the Dutch
painter Vincent van Gogh
. The earlier series executed in Paris in 1887 gives the flowers lying on the ground, while the second set executed a year later in Arles shows bouquets of sunflowers in a vase. In the artist's mind both sets were linked by the name of his friend Paul Gauguin
, who acquired two of the Paris versions. About eight months later Van Gogh hoped to welcome and to impress Gauguin again with Sunflowers, now part of the painted décoration he prepared for the guestroom of his Yellow House where Gauguin was supposed to stay in Arles. After Gauguin's departure, Van Gogh imagined the two major versions as wings of the Berceuse Triptych, and finally he included them in his exhibit
at Les XX
in Bruxelles.
As Van Gogh anticipated in 1889, the Sunflowers finally became his, and served—combined with self-portraits
—as his artistical arms and alter ego up to the present day: no retrospective Van Gogh exhibition since 1901 voluntarily missed including them, and a wealth of forgeries as well as record-setting price paid at auction acknowledges their public success: Perhaps, because Van Gogh's Sunflowers are more than his or him—they may be considered, as Gauguin put it, the flower.
The two Sunflowers in question show two buttons each, one of them was preceded by a small study, and a fourth large canvas combines both compositions.
These were Van Gogh's first paintings with "nothing but sunflowers"—yet, he had already included sunflowers in still life and landscape earlier.
See Letter 527
Leaving aside the first two versions, all Arlesian Sunflowers are painted on size 30 canvases.
These alterations are executed wet-in-wet and therefore considered genuine rework—even the more so as they are copied to the repetitions of January 1889: There is no longer a trace of later alterations, at least in this aspect.
. The series is perhaps his best known and most widely reproduced. In recent years, there has been debate regarding the authenticity of one of the paintings, and it has been suggested that this version may have been the work of Émile Schuffenecker
or of Paul Gauguin
. Most experts, however, conclude that the work is genuine.
A definite hint for the arrangement of the triptych is supplied by Van Gogh's sketch in a letter of July 1889.
Later that year, Van Gogh selected both versions for his display at Les XX, 1890.
's bedroom. The paintings show sunflowers in all stages of life, from full bloom to withering. The paintings were considered innovative for their use of the yellow spectrum, partly because newly invented pigment
s made new colours possible.
In a letter to his brother Theo
, Van Gogh wrote:
On March 31, 1987, even those without interest in art were made aware of van Gogh's Sunflowers series when Japanese insurance magnate Yasuo Goto paid the equivalent of US $39,921,750 for Van Gogh's Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers at auction at Christie's
London, at the time a record-setting amount for a work of art. The price was over four times the previous record of about $12 million paid for Andrea Mantegna
's Adoration of the Magi
in 1985. The record was broken a few months later with the purchase of another Van Gogh, Irises
, by Alan Bond
for $53.9 million at Sotheby's
, New York on November 11, 1987.
While it is uncertain whether Yasuo Goto bought the painting himself or on behalf of his company, the Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company of Japan, the painting currently resides at Seiji Togo Yasuda Memorial Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. After the purchase, a controversy arose whether this is a genuine van Gogh or an Emile Schuffenecker
forgery.
: one in January 1895 and the other in April 1896. The first resided for a short time with Félix Roux, but was reacquired by Vollard and sold to Degas from his estate to Rosenberg, then to Hahnloser and bequested to the Kunstmuseum in Bern. The second was acquired by the Dutch collector Hoogendijk at the sale of his collection by Kann, who ceded the painting to Richard Bühler and then via Thannhauser to the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Two of Van Gogh's Sunflowers paintings never left the artist's estate: the study for one of the Paris versions (F.377) and the repetition of fourth version (F.458). Both are in the possession of the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, established 1962 by Vincent Willem van Gogh, the artist's nephew, and on permanent loan to the Van Gogh Museum
, Amsterdam.
Five other versions are recorded in the Van Gogh estate papers:
Two Arles versions left the artist's estate unrecorded:
Serial imagery
Serial imagery is a central idea of modern and contemporary art. The Impressionists and their contemporaries were the first to use it, for example Claude Monet in his Poplars, Haystacks or Rouen Cathedral....
of still life
Still life
A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...
paintings by the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
painter Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
. The earlier series executed in Paris in 1887 gives the flowers lying on the ground, while the second set executed a year later in Arles shows bouquets of sunflowers in a vase. In the artist's mind both sets were linked by the name of his friend Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
, who acquired two of the Paris versions. About eight months later Van Gogh hoped to welcome and to impress Gauguin again with Sunflowers, now part of the painted décoration he prepared for the guestroom of his Yellow House where Gauguin was supposed to stay in Arles. After Gauguin's departure, Van Gogh imagined the two major versions as wings of the Berceuse Triptych, and finally he included them in his exhibit
Vincent van Gogh's display at Les XX, 1890
Vincent van Gogh's display at Les XX, 1890, in Brussels is an important testament to the recognition he received amongst avant-garde peers during his own lifetime. Participation in the annual exhibition of Les XX was for members and by invitation only...
at Les XX
Les XX
Les XX was a group of twenty Belgian painters, designers and sculptors, formed in 1883 by the Brussels lawyer, publisher, and entrepreneur Octave Maus. For ten years 'Les Vingt' , as they called themselves, held an annual exhibition of their art; each year twenty international artists were also...
in Bruxelles.
As Van Gogh anticipated in 1889, the Sunflowers finally became his, and served—combined with self-portraits
Self-Portraits by Vincent van Gogh
The dozens of self-portraits by Vincent van Gogh were an important part of his oeuvre as a painter. Vincent van Gogh created many self-portraits during his lifetime. Most probably, Van Gogh's self portraits are depicting the face as it appeared in the mirror he used to reproduce his face, i.e...
—as his artistical arms and alter ego up to the present day: no retrospective Van Gogh exhibition since 1901 voluntarily missed including them, and a wealth of forgeries as well as record-setting price paid at auction acknowledges their public success: Perhaps, because Van Gogh's Sunflowers are more than his or him—they may be considered, as Gauguin put it, the flower.
The Paris Sunflowers
Little is known of Van Gogh's activities during the two years he lived with his brother Theo in Paris, 1886-1888. The fact that he has painted Sunflowers already in this time is only revealed in spring 1889, when Gauguin claimed one of the Arles versions in exchange for studies he had left behind after leaving Arles for Paris. Van Gogh was upset and replied that Gauguin had absolutely no right for this request: "I am definitely keeping my sunflowers in question. He has two of them already, let that hold him. And if he is not satisfied with the exchange he has made with me, he can take back his little Martinique canvas, and his self-portrait sent me from Brittany, at the same time giving me back both my portrait and the two sunflower canvases which he has taken to Paris. So if he ever broaches this subject again, I've told you just how matters stand."The two Sunflowers in question show two buttons each, one of them was preceded by a small study, and a fourth large canvas combines both compositions.
These were Van Gogh's first paintings with "nothing but sunflowers"—yet, he had already included sunflowers in still life and landscape earlier.
The Arles Sunflowers
Now that I hope to live with Gauguin in a studio of our own, I want to make decorations for the studio. Nothing but big flowers.See Letter 527
Leaving aside the first two versions, all Arlesian Sunflowers are painted on size 30 canvases.
The initial versions, August 1888
None meets the descriptions supplied by Van Gogh himself in his announcement of the series in every detail: The first version differs in size, is painted on a size 20 canvas—not on a size 15 canvas as indicated—and all the others differ in the number of flowers depicted from Van Gogh's announcement. The second was evidently enlarged and the initial composition altered by insertion of the two flowers lying in the foreground, center and right. Neither the third nor the fourth shows the dozen or 14 flowers indicated by the artist, but more—fifteen or sixteen.These alterations are executed wet-in-wet and therefore considered genuine rework—even the more so as they are copied to the repetitions of January 1889: There is no longer a trace of later alterations, at least in this aspect.
The Repetitions, January 1889
Both repetitions of the 4th version are no longer in their original state. In the Amsterdam version a strip of wood was added at the top—probably by Van Gogh himself. The Tokyo version, however, was enlarged on all sides with strips of canvas, which were added at a later time—presumably by the first owner, Emile SchuffeneckerÉmile Schuffenecker
Émile Schuffenecker was a French Post-Impressionist artist, painter, art teacher and art collector. A friend of Paul Gauguin and Odilon Redon, and one of the first collectors of works by Vincent van Gogh, Schuffenecker was instrumental in establishing the Volpini exhibition, in 1889...
. The series is perhaps his best known and most widely reproduced. In recent years, there has been debate regarding the authenticity of one of the paintings, and it has been suggested that this version may have been the work of Émile Schuffenecker
Émile Schuffenecker
Émile Schuffenecker was a French Post-Impressionist artist, painter, art teacher and art collector. A friend of Paul Gauguin and Odilon Redon, and one of the first collectors of works by Vincent van Gogh, Schuffenecker was instrumental in establishing the Volpini exhibition, in 1889...
or of Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
. Most experts, however, conclude that the work is genuine.
The Berceuse-Triptych
In January 1889, when Van Gogh had just finished the first repetitions of the Berceuse and the Sunflowers pendants, he told his brother Theo: "I picture to myself these same canvases between those of the sunflowers, which would thus form torches or candelabra beside them, the same size, and so the whole would be composed of seven or nine canvases."A definite hint for the arrangement of the triptych is supplied by Van Gogh's sketch in a letter of July 1889.
Later that year, Van Gogh selected both versions for his display at Les XX, 1890.
Sunflowers, friendship and gratitude
Van Gogh began painting in late summer 1888 and continued into the following year. One went to decorate his friend Paul GauguinPaul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
's bedroom. The paintings show sunflowers in all stages of life, from full bloom to withering. The paintings were considered innovative for their use of the yellow spectrum, partly because newly invented pigment
Pigment
A pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which a material emits light.Many materials selectively absorb...
s made new colours possible.
In a letter to his brother Theo
Theo van Gogh (art dealer)
Theodorus "Theo" van Gogh was a Dutch art dealer. He was the younger brother of Vincent van Gogh, and Theo's unfailing financial and emotional support allowed his brother to devote himself entirely to painting...
, Van Gogh wrote:
"It is a kind of painting that rather changes in character, and takes on a richness the longer you look at it. Besides, you know, Gauguin likes them extraordinarily. He said to me among other things - 'That...it's...the flower.' You know that the peony is Jeannin's, the hollyhock belongs to Quost, but the sunflower is somewhat my own."
Sunflowers and the Van Gogh myth
Christie's
Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
London, at the time a record-setting amount for a work of art. The price was over four times the previous record of about $12 million paid for Andrea Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son in law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g., by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality...
's Adoration of the Magi
Adoration of the Magi (Mantegna)
The Adoration of the Magi is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna, from 1462.Together with The Ascension and The Circumcision, it forms a triptych created in 1827 at the Uffizi, where the picture can still be seen...
in 1985. The record was broken a few months later with the purchase of another Van Gogh, Irises
Irises (painting)
Irises is a painting by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. Irises was painted while Vincent van Gogh was living at the asylum at Saint Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, in the last year before his death in 1890....
, by Alan Bond
Alan Bond (businessman)
Alan Bond is an Australian businessman noted for his criminal convictions and high-profile business dealings, including what was at the time the biggest corporate collapse in Australian history. Bond was born in the Hammersmith district of London, England, and emigrated to Australia with his...
for $53.9 million at Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
, New York on November 11, 1987.
While it is uncertain whether Yasuo Goto bought the painting himself or on behalf of his company, the Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company of Japan, the painting currently resides at Seiji Togo Yasuda Memorial Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. After the purchase, a controversy arose whether this is a genuine van Gogh or an Emile Schuffenecker
Émile Schuffenecker
Émile Schuffenecker was a French Post-Impressionist artist, painter, art teacher and art collector. A friend of Paul Gauguin and Odilon Redon, and one of the first collectors of works by Vincent van Gogh, Schuffenecker was instrumental in establishing the Volpini exhibition, in 1889...
forgery.
Provenances
Two Paris versions Van Gogh exchanged with Gauguin in December 1887 or January 1888, who sold both to Ambroise VollardAmbroise Vollard
Ambroise Vollard is regarded as one of the most important dealers in French contemporary art at the beginning of the twentieth century...
: one in January 1895 and the other in April 1896. The first resided for a short time with Félix Roux, but was reacquired by Vollard and sold to Degas from his estate to Rosenberg, then to Hahnloser and bequested to the Kunstmuseum in Bern. The second was acquired by the Dutch collector Hoogendijk at the sale of his collection by Kann, who ceded the painting to Richard Bühler and then via Thannhauser to the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Two of Van Gogh's Sunflowers paintings never left the artist's estate: the study for one of the Paris versions (F.377) and the repetition of fourth version (F.458). Both are in the possession of the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, established 1962 by Vincent Willem van Gogh, the artist's nephew, and on permanent loan to the Van Gogh Museum
Van Gogh Museum
The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.-Background:...
, Amsterdam.
Five other versions are recorded in the Van Gogh estate papers:
- the final Paris version (F.452) in the artist's estate was sold 1909 via C. M. van Gogh, The Hague (J. H. de Bois) to Kröller-Müller
- (F.457) sold 1894 to Emile SchuffeneckerÉmile SchuffeneckerÉmile Schuffenecker was a French Post-Impressionist artist, painter, art teacher and art collector. A friend of Paul Gauguin and Odilon Redon, and one of the first collectors of works by Vincent van Gogh, Schuffenecker was instrumental in establishing the Volpini exhibition, in 1889...
. (Tokyo version). - (F.456) sold 1905 via Paul CassirerPaul CassirerPaul Cassirer was a German art dealer and editor who played a significant role in the promotion of the work of artists of the Berlin Secession and of French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, in particular that of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne.- Starting out :Paul Cassirer started out as...
to Hugo von TschudiHugo von TschudiHugo von Tschudi was an art historian and museum curator, notable for being a collector of important Impressionist works. Tschudi was born in Austria and became a naturalised Swiss citizen....
. (Munich version). - (F.459) sold 1908 C. M. van Gogh (J. H. de Bois), The Hague to Fritz Meyer-Fierz, Zürich (destroyed Japan 1945).
- (F.454) sold 1924 via Ernest Brown & Phillips (The Leicester Gallery) to the Tate GalleryTate GalleryThe Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
; since on permanent loan to the National Gallery, LondonNational Gallery, LondonThe National Gallery is an art museum on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media...
. (London version).
Two Arles versions left the artist's estate unrecorded:
- (F.453) (private collection).
- (F.455) (Philadelphia version).
External links
- Sunflowers@vggallery.com, the complete series of paintings.
- Sunflowers@vangoghgallery.com, offers an analysis of two sunflower paintings.