The Van Gogh Gallery Blog

During the August and September, when sunflowers are a hearty flower common in many areas, it is hard not to be reminded of Van Gogh.  Sunflowers have become an iconic symbol of the artist and his work.   Sunflowers were a popular subject in Van Gogh’s paintings when he moved to Arles, France; many of them he created to decorate Paul Gauguin’s room in the Yellow House in Arles. 

When writing to his brother Theo about Arles and the flowers in a letter from August 8, 1888, Van Gogh wrote

“Under the blue sky the orange, yellow, red splashes of the flowers take on an amazing brilliance, and in the limpid air there is a something or other happier, more lovely than in the North.”

It is not surprising that Van Gogh captured that happiness in some of his most famous Sunflower paintings which he created during his stay in Arles.  His most commonly known Sunflower paintings are the Sunflowers and the Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, but he created several other lesser known Sunflower paintings.  His earlier paintings containing sunflowers were done in Paris from 1886-1887.  These paintings do not have the same vibrant yellows as the Arles series has, but show his early development of this subject.   View a few of them here:

Letter Source:
http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/18/519.htm

The summer is the perfect time to get out of the heat and take in some culture at a local museum.   Fortunately, for Van Gogh lovers his works can be seen in museums all over the world.  The largest collections can be found in The Netherlands including famous works like The Potato Eaters, Sunflowers and Almond Blossom.  The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo have the largest collections.  Travel to Paris and see more of Van Gogh’s masterpieces like Starry Night Over the Rhone at the Musée d’Orsay or La Mousmé, Sitting at the Louvre.   In London both the National Gallery and the Tate Modern have works by Van Gogh.

In New York, you can see Van Gogh’s Starry Night in person at the Museum of Modern Art or see several of his other paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.   If you are in Chicago the Art Institute of Chicago has several impressive Van Gogh pieces including The Bedroom.  

And no matter where you are you can always view Van Gogh’s masterpieces by going to the Van Gogh Gallery catalog and filter by city, state, country or museum name to find the Van Goghs closest to you or just browse them online.

Van Gogh’s Sunflowers is one of his most famous series of works.  He completed two separate series of still life paintings of Sunflowers the first in Paris in 1887 and the second adorned Gauguin’s room in Arles when he came to stay with Van Gogh at the yellow house.    In a letter to his brother Theo from August of 1888 Van Gogh writes about how quickly he had to work to complete his Sunflower paintings to decorate the Studio of the South,

“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. Next door to your shop, in the restaurant, you know there is a lovely decoration of flowers; I always remember the big sunflowers in the window there.

If I carry out this idea there will be a dozen panels. So the whole thing will be a symphony in blue and yellow. I am working at it every morning from sunrise on, for the flowers fade so soon, and the thing is to do the whole in one rush.”

Often synonymous with happiness and light, for Van Gogh Sunflowers also brought meaning of new hope for building his artist community in the Studio of the South.   The National Gallery website has an interesting section on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers which details Sunflowers as symbols of happiness and covers this period in Van Gogh’s life:
 
Van Gogh’s Sunflowers served as an inspiration for many other artists.  View other artists’ Sunflowers.

Throughout history artists have worked together and inspired each other.   Possibly one of the most recognized pairs of artists who had profound influences on each other was Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin.   One reason this is so well known is because of the collection of Van Gogh’s letters, which chronicles his artistic development first-hand, is an incredible record of the artist’s journey which we do not have in such great detail for many other artists.  In addition, Van Gogh and Gauguin lived and worked together in a yellow house in Arles during 1888 called the Studio of the South.  It was here that Van Gogh painted Sunflowers to decorate Gauguin’s room and here that the artists collaborated constantly learning from each other’s style and techniques.

The link between these two artists is so great that exhibitions have been held around these two artists and their influences on each other.   The Art Institute of Chicago had an exhibition a number of years ago called Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South.  On the site you will find information about the artists as well as a slide show and maps of Arles.  In addition, The Van Gogh Museum has an interactive site which provides quotes from letters and images of paintings by the artists.

Below are some of Van Gogh’s paintings from this time.

Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin, September, 1888

Paul Gauguin’s Armchair, December, 1888

Happy New Year and thank you for helping support our site to make 2009 an excellent year!  We have had a lot of great feedback from Van Gogh Gallery visitors in the form of blog comments and email messages.  We appreciate all of your input on the site and our blog.  We are also thrilled to have had such an impressive response on our Van Gogh Gallery Facebook page.  We are on track to reach 1,000 fans by the end of 2009, and we value the comments and insights our fans share with us and the Van Gogh community on Facebook everyday!  If you haven’t had a chance to join this community, become a fan today and be a part of the on-going conversation covering everything Van Gogh.  Happy New Year and here’s to an exciting 2010!

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If you have the opportunity, the best way to experience Van Gogh’s masterpieces is up close and in person. A number of years ago I was lucky enough to have a chance to visit the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Before visiting I had an appreciation for Van Gogh. I knew all the crowd-pleasers like Starry Night, Sunflowers, and Café Terrace on the Place du Forum. I had read Irving Stone’s Lust for Life and became interested in Van Gogh’s life. But, it was not until experiencing the Van Gogh Museum that I could really appreciate the breadth of his work and the story of his life.

The Van Gogh Museum is home to over 200 Van Gogh paintings as well as many of his drawings and letters. This is the largest collection of Van Gogh works anywhere in the world. See works like The Potato Eaters, Almond Blossom, Irises and The Bedroom. Although the museum itself is more modern than other nearby museums like the Rijksmuseum, also located on the Museumplein, you will feel as though you are transported back to Van Gogh’s time as he tells you his story in his words while you peruse letters handwritten by Van Gogh. You will be taken aback when you realize that this multistory building is houses mainly one man’s work, and when you see his use of color and brushstrokes in person it is awe-inspiring.

While the museum is mainly covers Van Gogh, it also hosts works by other artists like Gauguin, Monet, Pissarro, Seurat, and other artists of the 19th century as well as temporary exhibitions of other artist’s work. Opening on the 18th is an exhibit of Belgian artist Alfred Stevens’ work. If you have stories or photos from your trip to the Van Gogh Museum that you would like to add, please share your comments.

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