More Surprising Facts
Find out what researchers have discovered about Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Watch the video.
Vincent wanted to be known as the painter of sunflowers
Just like other painters working at the time, Vincent made flower still lifes. But he did things a little differently. After practising with different flowers, he chose a specific variety: the sunflower. His fellow painters thought that sunflowers were perhaps somewhat coarse and unrefined. But this is exactly what Vincent liked, and he also enjoyed painting flowers that had gone to seed. He gave sunflowers the lead role in several paintings.
Vincent knew that his sunflower paintings were special. As did other people. After he died, friends brought sunflowers with them to his funeral. Sunflowers became synonymous with Vincent, just as he had hoped.
Richard Roland Holst (1868 - 1938), Vincent, catalogue of the Van Gogh exhibition in the Kunstzaal Panorama Amsterdam, December 1892. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1887. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
