Vincent van Gogh Painting Sunflowers
Currently on view
Paul Gauguin (1848 - 1903), Arles, 1888
oil on canvas, 73 cm x 91 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Was Van Gogh really painting a vase of sunflowers when his friend Gauguin produced this portrait of him? No, he can’t have been: it was December and far too late in the year for sunflowers. But it’s quite probable that Van Gogh painted a copy of one of his own sunflower pictures around this time. The landscape in the background is also fictional: unlike Van Gogh, Gauguin liked to work from his imagination. They often argued about this. This painting refers to their disagreement.
Later, Van Gogh wrote about this portrait: ‘My face has lit up a lot since, but it was indeed me, extremely tired and charged with electricity as I was then.’
- Object number
- s0225V1962
- Dimensions
- 73 cm x 91 cm, 91.2 cm x 109.7 cm, 6.8 cm x 205 cm, 142 cm x 52 cm
- Provenance
- Given by the artist to Theo van Gogh, Paris, on or after 25 December 1888; after his death on 25 January 1891, inherited by his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, Paris; administered until her death on 2 September 1925 by Jo van Gogh-Bonger, Bussum/Amsterdam/Laren; transferred by Vincent Willem van Gogh, Laren, to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam, 10 July 1962; agreement concluded between the Vincent van Gogh Foundation and the State of the Netherlands, in which the preservation and management of the collection, and its placing in the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, to be realized in Amsterdam, is entrusted to the State, 21 July 1962; on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh from the opening of the museum on 2 June 1973, and at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, since 1 July 1994.
- artist
- Paul Gauguin
- Credits (obliged to state)
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
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Callen, Anthea, Gallimmore, K., Havell, J., art of impressionism : painting technique and the making of modernity, 2000, p. 215
Callen, Anthea, Gallimmore, K., Havell, J., art of impressionism : painting technique and the making of modernity, 2000, p. 215
