
The Painter of Sunflowers (Portrait of Vincent van Gogh) | |
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Year | 1888 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 73 cm × 91 cm (28.7 in × 35.8 in) |
Location | Van Gogh Museum |
How many paintings of sunflowers did Van Gogh paint?
Van Gogh painted the Sunflower series between the years of 1887 to 1889. How many paintings are there in the Sunflower Series? There are a total 11 paintings in this series. Where did he paint them? Van Gogh painted four of the paintings in Paris, and he painted the remaining seven in Arles .
Why did Van Gogh paint sunflowers?
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers Gone to Seed, 1887. Courtesy of the Van Gogh Museum. The sunflower, which Van Gogh once saw as decorative, had become something almost sacred, a symbol that represented light itself, an ideal of an honest life lived in nature.
How to paint sunflowers on a wall?
- You can use whatever type of paint you prefer for painting; both oil and acrylics work well for painting on a canvas.
- Don’t forget the background of your painting. If you’re painting the sunflowers in an outdoor setting, you’ll need blue to fill in the sky or green to represent grass and ...
- It’s a good idea to keep white and black paint on hand. ...
How much was the painting Sunflowers sold for?
Van Gogh Painting Sold for Record $39.85 Million. A painting of dazzling yellow sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh was sold today for $39.85 million, more than three times the highest price ever paid for a painting at auction.

Who painted the sunflowers?
Vincent van GoghSunflowers / ArtistVincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. Wikipedia
Who painted Van Gogh painting sunflowers?
Paul GauguinThe Painter of Sunflowers / ArtistEugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of color and Synthetist style that were distinct from Impressionism. Toward the end of his life, he spent ten years in French Polynesia. Wikipedia
Who painted the famous sunflower picture?
Vincent van GoghVincent van Gogh, SunflowersFull titleSunflowersArtistVincent van GoghArtist dates1853 - 1890Date made1888Medium and supportOil on canvas6 more rows
What did Vincent van Gogh say about sunflowers?
In a letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh wrote: “The sunflower is mine.” At his funeral, his relatives held sunflowers in their hands. Vincent van Gogh's short career had a profound effect on modern art.
Why did Van Gogh paint the sunflowers?
The sunflower paintings had a special significance for Van Gogh: they communicated 'gratitude', he wrote. He hung the first two in the room of his friend, the painter Paul Gauguin, who came to live with him for a while in the Yellow House.
Why is Van Gogh sunflower so famous?
Sunflowers is a powerful painting. Using just three tints of yellow 'and nothing else', Van Gogh achieved a glorious harmony of colours. The simple motif also profoundly appeals to a lot of people.
What sunflower means?
Sunflowers symbolize adoration, loyalty and longevity. Much of the meaning of sunflowers stems from its namesake, the sun itself.
What do sunflowers mean in art?
Find out why sunflowers represented happiness for Van Gogh.
When was sunflowers painted?
August 1888Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers / Created
What's the saying about sunflowers?
Helen Keller. "Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It's what sunflowers do."
How many times did Van Gogh paint sunflowers?
All told, van Gogh painted 11 works in which sunflowers are the primary subject, and more in which they play a role, Ms. Bakker said. He made four of these in Paris, and seven in Arles.
Which Van Gogh sunflowers is the most famous?
Van Gogh's most famous sunflower still life hangs at London's National Gallery.The first Arles Sunflowers painting is privately owned. ... This version was destroyed in Ashiya, Japan due to fire during World War II.This version, similar to the National Gallery's, hangs at Munich's Neue Pinakothek.
Where is the original van Gogh sunflower painting?
Sunflowers (Van Gogh series)SunflowersYear1888MediumOil on canvasDimensions92.1 cm × 73 cm (36.3 in × 29 in)LocationNational Gallery, London3 more rows
How much is van Gogh sunflower worth?
$39.85 millionLONDON (AP) _ An anonymous buyer Monday paid $39.85 million for Vincent van Gogh's ″Sunflowers,″ a dazzling yellow work the artist once hoped to sell for $125. The price was more than triple the record for an auctioned painting.
Did Monet paint sunflowers?
When people think of sunflowers they think of Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh. He is the most famous artist to be associated with painting sunflowers, but did you know Frenchman Claude Monet painted in 1881 's 'Bouquet of Sunflowers' which pre-dates Van Gogh's work.
How many versions of van Gogh sunflowers are there?
So Van Gogh painted 11 sunflower paintings with 10 + 77 = 87 sunflowers in total.
How big is the Sunflowers painting?
Dimensions. 92.1 cm × 73 cm (36.3 in × 29 in) Location. National Gallery, London. Sunflowers (original title, in French: Tournesols) is the name of two series of still life paintings by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. The first series, executed in Paris in 1887, depicts the flowers lying on the ground, while the second set, ...
How much did Van Gogh pay for his still life?
On March 30, 1987, 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.
What is the name of the two series of still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh?
Sunflowers. (Van Gogh series) Sunflowers (original title, in French: Tournesols) is the name of two series of still life paintings by the Dutch painter 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.
How many flowers are in Van Gogh's painting?
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.
What was Van Gogh's first painting?
These were Van Gogh's first paintings with "nothing but sunflowers" —yet, he had already included sunflowers in still life and landscape earlier. Roses and Sunflowers, 1886. Oil on canvas, 50 × 61 cm. Kunsthalle Mannheim.
When did Vincent finish the Berceuse and the Sunflowers pendant?
In January 1889, when Vincent had just finished the first repetitions of the Berceuse and the Sunflowers pendants, he told 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."
Where did Van Gogh paint the yellow house?
About eight months later van Gogh hoped to welcome and to impress Gauguin again with Sunflowers, now part of the painted Décoration for the Yellow House that he prepared for the guestroom of his home in Arles, where Gauguin was supposed to stay.
How many sunflowers did Vincent van Gogh paint?
Vincent van Gogh, “Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers,” 1888 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons Public Domain) Between his original paintings and these Repetitions, Van Gogh intended to produce 12 Sunflower paintings. “ If I carry out this idea there will be a dozen panels,” he wrote. “So the whole thing will be a symphony in blue and yellow.”.
How many sunflowers are in the Arles vase?
In fact, two of the so-called Arles Sunflowers ( Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers and Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers) were part of another series. Along with La Berceuse, a portrait of Augustine Roulin (one of Van Gogh's regular sitters), this pair of paintings was to make up part of a three-piece installation.
What are the two series Van Gogh created?
Van Gogh repeatedly revisited these cheerful yellow subjects, culminating in two series: his Paris Sunflowers and his Arles Sunflowers. Though strikingly different in color palette and composition, both series explore the artist's admiration for the flowers—a connection that he continuously cultivated over the course of his short career.
What color are the sunflowers in Van Gogh's Arles?
In Arles, Van Gogh rendered the flowers in various shades of yellow, “ demonstrat [ing] that it was possible to create an image with numerous variations of a single color, without any loss of eloquence.”
What is the name of the painting Van Gogh painted in Paris?
While in Paris, Van Gogh painted four still lifes of sunflowers: Four Withered Sunflowers , two pieces simply titled Sunflowers, and an oil study called Sunflowers Gone to Seed. Each piece depicts cut flowers resting on a floor or table, emphasizing the intricate detail of their heads and stems and enabling Van Gogh to experiment with color and stroke.
How did Van Gogh arrange his paintings?
Van Gogh detailed their arrangement in a letter, supplementing a brief written description with a quick sketch. “If you arrange them this way, namely La Berceuse in the middle and the two canvases of sunflowers to the right and left, it makes a sort of triptych,” he said. “And then the yellow and orange tones of the head will gain in brilliance by the proximity of the yellow wings.”
Why did Van Gogh want to create such a prolific series of Sunflowers?
Why did Van Gogh want to create such a prolific series of Sunflowers? To the artist, this “symphony of blue and yellow” would make the perfect addition to the Yellow House, his home in Arles and the site of his proposed artists' colony. Specifically, he hoped that these decorations would please Paul Gauguin, his first—and last—recruit.
What was Van Gogh's significance?
The sunflower paintings had a special significance for Van Gogh: they communicated ‘gratitude’ , he wrote. He hung the first two in the room of his friend, the painter Paul Gauguin, who came to live with him for a while in the Yellow House. Gauguin was impressed by the sunflowers, which he thought were ‘completely Vincent’.
Where did Vincent van Gogh paint sunflowers?
Van Gogh’s paintings of Sunflowers are among his most famous. He did them in Arles, in the south of France, in 1888 and 1889. Vincent painted a total of five large canvases with sunflowers in a vase, with three shades of yellow ‘and nothing else’.
Did Vincent van Gogh paint a new version of the painting?
Van Gogh had already painted a new version during his friend ’s stay and Gauguin later asked for one as a gift, which Vincent was reluctant to give him. He later produced two loose copies, however, one of which is now in the Van Gogh Museum. Object data. Exhibitions.
How many sunflowers did Vincent van Gogh paint?
Sunflowers, 1888 by Vincent Van Gogh. Some of Vincent van Gogh's most famous works are his Sunflower series. He painted a total of twelve of these canvases, although the most commonly referred to are the seven he painted while in Arles in 1888 - 1889.
What distinguishes the artist's earlier Paris series?
A factor that distinguishes the artist's earlier Paris series is the fact that blossoms are laid casually on a surface in groups of two or four while in the Arles series, they are arranged in a vase in greater profusion. 3. When they first met in Paris in 1887, Van Gogh and Paul Gaugin exchanged paintings.
What did Van Gogh say about sunflowers?
Then goes on to say that he intends to decorate the whole studio with nothing but sunflowers. Though originally made for Gauguin, van Gogh later took the sunflower as his own personal artistic signature, telling his brother Theo in another letter in 1889 that "the sunflower is mine.".
What was Vincent's yellow house?
He planned to decorate the room with sunflower paintings. Later, the Yellow House would be the scene of Vincent's self-mutilation. 5.
When did Van Gogh and Gaugin meet?
3. When they first met in Paris in 1887, Van Gogh and Paul Gaugin exchanged paintings. Vincent's contribution was a "Sunflowers" painting from his Paris series.
Did Vincent van Gogh paint sunflowers?
1. Van Gogh never painted a single artwork entitled "Sunflowers." Instead, he did several renditions of the large yellow blossoms in two separate series of sunflowers, one during a stay with his brother in Paris in 1887 and another during his tenancy in Arles from 1888 to 1889.
Who was the first artist to embrace sunflowers?
He was among the first artists to fully embrace them. 10. Van Gogh was not alone in his focus on 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 evoked the sunflower image.
What is the name of the painting Van Gogh painted with sunflowers?
Van Gogh imagined Madame Roulin flanked by two sunflower paintings to form a triptych —the Virgin Mary framed by vibrant bouquets.
How many sunflowers did Gauguin make?
He would come to produce a total of 11 sunflower still lifes, some of them intended to impress Gauguin and adorn his bedroom in the Yellow House in Arles, where the artists spent two months together in the fall of 1888.
What is the meaning of the sunflower in Van Gogh's painting?
The sunflower, which Van Gogh once saw as decorative, had become something almost sacred, a symbol that represented light itself, an ideal of an honest life lived in nature.
When did Van Gogh go to seed?
Vincent van Gogh. Four sunflowers gone to seed, August -October 1887. Kröller-Müller Museum. Nienke Bakker, curator of a new exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum dedicated to the artist’s famous sunflowers, believes that Gauguin’s interest in the younger artist’s first foray into this subject almost certainly reinforced Van Gogh’s sustained focus on ...
Where did Van Gogh live during his illness?
As Bakker notes in the exhibition catalogue, Van Gogh revealed to his brother Theo that during his illness he had seen in his mind the house and garden in Zundert.
Where was Vincent van Gogh's painting Sunflowers?
Vincent van Gogh Painting Sunflowers, 1888. Van Gogh Museum. In late 1887, a struggling artist named. Vincent van Gogh. hung dozens of paintings on the walls of the Grand Bouillon-Restaurant du Chalet in Paris. Above the long tables where low-income Parisians went to eat from a simple, set menu, works by Van Gogh, as well as those of.
Who was the artist who painted sunflower heads?
The exhibition had made a mark on one painter, at least. When. Paul Gauguin. came to look at the work, his eye was drawn to a few of Van Gogh’s oil studies—in particular, his close-up still lifes of sunflower heads, their wide seed-cores velvety-looking in texture, their crowns of wilted petals like dancing flames.
What is the name of the painting with the sunflowers?
The other three pictures are: F377 (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), a smaller canvas usually regarded as a study for this work; F376 (Kunstmuseum Bern), also depicting two sunflowers; and F452 (Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo), a larger painting depicting four sunflowers. Only the New York and Bern canvases are signed and dated.
How many Van Goghs did Gauguin have?
Recollections of a Picture Dealer. London, 1936, p. 174, states that Gauguin had three Van Goghs hanging above his bed, a landscape flanked on each side by a painting of sunflowers (this work and F376).
Where was Van Gogh's F376 exhibited?
Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1984, pp. 36–37, no. 3, ill. (color), states that this work and F376 were exhibited at the Grand Bouillon-Restaurant du Chalet, Paris, sometime during November-December 1887, and that Van Gogh gave both canvases to Gauguin in exchange for one of Gauguin's Martinique landscapes (W252; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam); dates Vollard's recollection of seeing them in Gauguin's studio to 1893–94 [see Vollard 1936].
When did Vincent van Gogh write his letter to his brother?
Vincent van Gogh. Letter to his brother Theo. [July 15, 1888] [Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, inv. nos. b551 a-b V/1962, http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let640/letter.html; pub. in Van Gogh Letters 1958, letter no. 510; Van Gogh Letters 2009, letter no. 640], writes that he exchanged works with Gauguin at the exhibition held in Paris in 1887.
Who painted the Tokyo sunflowers?
Louis van Tilborgh and Ella Hendriks. "The Tokyo 'Sunflowers': A Genuine Repetition by Van Gogh or a Schuffenecker Forgery?" Van Gogh Museum Journal (2001), p. 25 nn. 51–52, following the revised date and recipient for a Gauguin letter given in Merlhès 1989, argue that Van Gogh gave this painting and F376 to Gauguin in late 1887 or early 1888 in an exchange of works; state that Gauguin consigned both paintings to Vollard in 1895 for an advance of Fr 400, with an additional Fr 225 paid in 1896.
When was Van Gogh and Gauguin's studio of the South?
Art Institute of Chicago. "Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South," September 22, 2001 –January 13, 2002, no. 23 (as "Two Sunflowers").
When was Van Gogh critic?
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Van Gogh as Critic and Self-Critic," October 30, 1973–January 6, 1974, no. 6.
About Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent Van Gogh (born 1853, died 1890) is probably one of the most well known and influential artists of the 19th century. The son of a Dutch pastor, the young Van Gogh worked for picture dealers along with his brother Theo.
Objectives
Students will be able to demonstrate an interest in and knowledge of the artists who painted (and paint) sunflowers.
What You Do
Read Camille and the Sunflowers to the class. Showing the pictures and pointing out posters/visuals of pictures hung about the room at the appropriate times. Discuss the story and the artist Vincent Van Gogh.
Other Artists to Study
Vincent van Gogh, (1853-1890), Dutch post-impressionist painter, whose work represents the archetype of expressionism, the idea of emotional spontaneity in painting.
What does the sunflower look like?
Sunflower Paintings. "Helianthus" comes from the Greek words that mean "sun" and "flower.". Thus, the sunflower is a bright yellow flower that closely resembles the sun. Additionally, many varieties are heliotropic, especially as young plants. This means that they face toward the sun as it crosses the sky. Except for a few species native ...
Is a sunflower a heliotropic plant?
Thus, the sunflower is a bright yellow flower that closely resembles the sun. Additionally, many varieties are heliotropic, especially as young plants. This means that they face toward the sun as it crosses the sky. Except for a few species native to South America, most of these flowers are native to North America.
Where are sunflowers native to?
This means that they face toward the sun as it crosses the sky. Except for a few species native to South America, most of these flowers are native to North America. We offer a varied collection of paintings featuring these beautiful plants. Previous. sunflower oil. sunflower family. giant sunflower. sunflower head. abstract sunflower.

Overview
The Painter of Sunflowers (in French: Le Peintre de Tournesols) is a portrait of Vincent van Gogh by Paul Gauguin in December 1888.
The painting is exhibited at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
The Paris Sunflowers
The Arles Sunflowers
Sunflowers, friendship and gratitude
Sunflowers (original title, in French: Tournesols) is the title of two series of still life paintings by the Dutch painter 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. 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 w…
Subsequent history
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 had painted Sunflowers already is only revealed in the spring of 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 to make this request: "I am definitely keeping my sunflowers in question. He has two of t…
External links
In a letter to Theo, dating from 21 or 22 August 1888, Vincent wrote: "I'm painting with the gusto of a Marseillais eating bouillabaisse, which won’t surprise you when it's a question of painting large sunflowers." At this time he had three paintings on the go, and intended to do more; as he explained to his brother: "in the hope of living in a studio of our own with Gauguin, I'd like to do a decoration for the studio. Nothing but large sunflowers".