Vase of Flowers
Currently on view
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Auvers-sur-Oise, June 1890
oil on canvas, 42.2 cm x 29 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
This flower still life is not unfinished, even if it looks that way. Van Gogh painted it with loose and clearly rapid brushstrokes, as he was increasingly doing since he went to live in Auvers. He made the flowers only just recognisable and surrounded them with fairly rough blue outlines.
He painted the bunch of flowers in the home of his doctor, Paul-Ferdinand Gachet (1828-1909), whom he described as ‘a ready-made friend and something like a new brother’. We even know that he painted it at Gachet’s red table, on which the vase is standing in the picture.