The Studio News

Van Gogh’s Sunflowers

Van Gogh loved sunflowers. He painted them in the landscape, but is better known for them in his still lifes. He began the famous series of sunflower paintings as decorative pieces for the yellow house in Arles, where he and Paul Gaugin shared living quarters and studio space for a short time.

Vase With Fifteen Sunflowers, which is probably his most famous piece, was actually painted three different times (using the same title, of course). My favorite of the three was painted in January of 1889. Color and B&W versions appear below and are included for the purpose of this discussion.

Notice anything (other than all that yellow)? There’s very little depth to this painting; it’s mostly mid-range values with a few darks to give structure to the arrangement. Shadows are noticably absent. This is a stark contrast to his earlier still lifes, which contained a much wider range of values and were more realistically painted. Which leaves me with a bit of a dilemma; how to complete my own piece in the spirit of Van Gogh.

There has been much research and many papers written about Van Gogh’s use of yellow in his paintings, ranging from lead poisoning to the ingestion of digitalis. A more simple explanation might be warranted for his sunflower paintings, however.

The first Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers was painted in August of 1888. The sunflowers would have been in full bloom about that time, and it was probably too hot to paint inside. I think he simply took his sunflowers outside to paint them. The yellow house would’ve provided the yellow background, and although there isn’t much shadow available at mid-day, the light is good…

Another notable characteristic of Vincent’s paintings is the thick texture of the paint. Some of my favorite floral still lifes are Pink Roses in a Vase, Vase With Iris, Vase With Roses, and Pink Roses, all painted between May-June 1890. The mix of thick texture with flat in these paintings is intriguing, and I’m wondering if I can make something like that work in my composition.

What composition, you ask? I’ve decided an appropriate subject for a Van Gogh study must have- what else? A vase with 15 sunflowers- and from my very own garden, too!

My original set-up was unintentionally similar to Vase With Iris, but I won’t be using yellow for the background. Only Van Gogh could put that much yellow on a canvas make it work.

I like the color scheme he used in Vase With Twelve Sunflowers, and a similar color scheme can be found in Still Life With Quince Pears. Both of these were completed in 1888, the same year as his first Vase With Fifteen Sunflowers.

So now I have a rough sketch and a possible color scheme, although I’m still thinking about using blue-violets (opposite) or cremes (Vase of Iris) for the background. So, what would Vincent do? He’d do three different paintings with three different color schemes and name them all the same, of course!

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