Series of Sunflowers by Van Goh

Van Gogh mostly varied the subjects of his paintings. While he might re-use e.g. the elements of a starry night in a few paintings, the subjects of these paintings were not the same. He did not often repeat or return to a motive. While he did paint himself on numerous occasions, it was at least with different looks and clothes.

However, one motive he did do over and over again. Maybe that is why this one subject has become more tied to Van Gogh Paintings than any other subject. I am of course talking about his Sunflowers. In late 1888 and early 1889, Van Gogh painted two series of Sunflowers. These have later emerged as some of the artists most celebrated work, indeed as some of the most valuable pieces of art in the world. When Christies sold one in 1987 for USD 40 million, it was thus a record sum for a painting at the time.

And it is easy to see the appeal of the Sunflowers by Van Gogh. The colors are bright and appealing, the flowers rich and alive, the artists own touch so deep as to make the Sunflowers almost reach out of the painting towards you. They are pretty to look at but at the same time hide many details that only lend themselves upon closer examination. They are truly masterpieces of the post-impressionist era.

A Portrait of Dr. Gachet

Dr. Paul Gachet was the physician taking care of Vincent van Gogh in the last months of his life. In June of 1890, Van Gogh painted two portraits of Dr. Gachet. The motive of the portraits is identical. The doctor is sitting at a table, leaning heavily on this right arm. He has an expression of slight abandon on his face as he stared into the air. He has a foxglove flower in his hand, a flower from which digitalis can be extracted in order to treat heart disease. This helps identify him as a doctor. In the far background, and hills can be made out.


The coloring of the two versions differs significantly. In the first version, the coloring is sharper, more contrast driven and leaves an impression of melancholy. The second version is more uniform in its coloring, with blue being the dominant color, only really challenged by the red of the table cloth. It also has a more depressed feel to it, a somber loss of purpose.

Previously to executing these paintings, Van Gogh has talked about the kind of portraits he would like to make, about how they had to be with the thought, and the soul of the model in it. Upon completing the first version, Van Gogh wrote to his brother about the painting:

“I've done the portrait of M. Gachet with a melancholy expression, which might well seem like a grimace to those who see it... Sad but gentle, yet clear and intelligent, that is how many portraits ought to be done... There are modern heads that may be looked at for a long time, and that may perhaps be looked back on with longing a hundred years later.”

The first version of Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold in 1990 for USD 82.5 million. It is currently in a private collection. The second version is currently on display at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris.

About Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch post impressionist painter who grew up in Holland but later moved to Belgium, France and Arles where he completed some of his most famous works.

Van Gogh's own writing provides us with some insights as to his own personal views towards the paintings. As can be seen, he was not initially overly enthusiastic about the painting. As he wrote to his brother Theo, when he sent it along with some other paintings:

"The first four canvases are studies without the effect of a whole that the others have . . . The olives with white clouds and background of mountains, also the moonrise and the night effect, these are exaggerations from the point of view of arrangement, their lines are warped as that of old wood."

Later in this letter, Van Gogh once more referred to the painting:

"In this entire batch I think nothing at all good save the field of wheat, the mountain, the orchard, the olives with the blue hills and the portrait and the entrance to the Quarry, and the rest says nothing to me, because it lacks individual intention and feeling in the lines.

Where these lines are close and deliberate it begins to be a picture, even if it is exaggerated. That is a little what Bernard and Gauguin feel, they do not ask the correct shape of a tree at all, but they insist absolutely that one can say if the shape is round or square - and my word, they are right, exasperated as they are by certain people's photographic and empty perfection."

Some of his most famous works include Starry Night, Sunflowers, Irises and The Potato Eaters. Although Van Gogh and his art was never appreciated in his time he is now considered one of the greatest painters in art history. This blog is dedicated to the life of Van Gogh and the many Van Gogh Paintings that bring joy to us all.