5 facts about Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers

Sunflowers - Vincent Van Gogh - 1888 - Oil on Canvas

Hello everyone,

How are you all? 

Feel like I haven't had an art post in a while so I thought I would share with you all Vincent Van Gogh's sunflowers as it has been in the press a lot recently because of the National Gallery exhibition. This is an iconic painting and remains a fond favourite of many visitors to the National Gallery in London.

Van Gogh (1853-1890) was a Post Impressionist painter and is now one of the most well known painters in the world. 

*This version of Sunflowers hangs in the National Gallery in London

*Sunflowers was painted when Van Gogh moved to Arles in Provence while he was waiting for Paul Gauguin, a fellow painter who he admired to arrive. He dreamt of setting up a community of artists here in the yellow house that he rented and for Gauguin to be his mentor and work with him in an artistic partnership.

*There are seven paintings by Van Gogh of Sunflowers

*As you can see the majority of the painting is yellow. Yellow as a colour is usually associated with happiness and in the Netherlands is often a symbol of loyalty. This is perhaps another way of showing his happiness and excitement of Gauguin visiting and also his friendship and loyalty to him.

*The colours you see in the painting are also important because they were newly invented chemical colours; colbolt blue and chrome yellow. This gave Vincent a larger range of colour choice.