Find out why sunflowers represented happiness for Van Gogh. Learn how he experimented with colour to capture mood and express identity. The Sunflowers is one of the most popular paintings in the National Gallery. It is the painting that is most often reproduced on cards, posters, mugs, tea-towels.
The prolific yet short-lived career of Vincent van Gogh has captivated the art world nearly as much as his actual paintings have. From his birth in the Netherlands to his death in France—not to mention the infamous ear incident of 1888—the Dutch post-impressionist painter was a creative force of nature who took a little longer than other artists of the era to find his calling. Now, his life has been immortalized in movies, songs, and countless art exhibits, but, as is the case with so many great artists, van Gogh wasn't celebrated much while he was alive. Find out more about the fascinating man behind The Starry Night and Sunflowers below. A woman admires Vincent van Gogh's 'Self-Portrait,' which was painted in 1853. Thomas Lohnes/Getty ImagesVincent Willem van Gogh grew up in the Netherlands and an art firm called Goupil & Cie in The Hague in 1869, when he was just 16 years old. Four years later, Goupil & Cie sent him to deal art in London, but it was never a good fit—van Gogh couldn’t muster enthusiasm for the business side of art, and he was fired in 1876.
After trying his hand at teaching and even preaching, he turned to what he’d soon realize was his true vocation: painting. Largely self-taught, van Gogh nearly 900 works between November 1881 and July 1890, when he died at age 37. Vincent van Gogh painted The Starry Night in an asylum. One of van Gogh's Arles 'Sunflowers' from 1888. National Gallery, Wikimedia Commons // Public DomainVan Gogh two series of Sunflowers. He completed the first series—four paintings known as the Paris Sunflowers, which all depict the flowers lying on the ground—while living with Theo in Paris in the mid-1880s.
Then, when he moved into a yellow house in Arles in 1888, he set to work on what’s now called the Arles Sunflowers, which display floral arrangements in vases. He planned to decorate the house with the sunflower paintings to please fellow painter Paul Gauguin, who would visit him there. Originally, van Gogh had painted seven Sunflowers in Arles, but one was destroyed in a fire during World War II, and another was lost after it was sold into a private collection. Historians aren’t sure exactly why Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear. 'Self-Portrait With Bandaged Ear' by Vincent van Gogh, painted in 1889.
Art Media/Print Collector/Getty ImagesEverybody agrees the infamous incident took place on December 23, 1888, while van Gogh was living in Arles, France, with fellow painter Paul Gauguin, but there are several as to why van Gogh took a knife or razor to his own ear that fateful night—as well as how much he cut off, and who was the recipient of history’s most revolting gift. The leading theory is that van Gogh was distraught after a quarrel with Gauguin, though others believe it was a reaction to learning his beloved brother Theo was getting married. Some even think it was Gauguin who did the slicing.Also, while it’s possible that van Gogh only lopped off the lobe, his physician an image that shows van Gogh’s entire ear is missing.
Circumstances notwithstanding, van Gogh then brought his mutilated ear to a woman in a nearby brothel—long thought to be a prostitute, though recent evidence suggests she was likely a barmaid—and her to guard it carefully. Cyberpunk 2077 trailer 4k. Vincent van Gogh died from a (likely) self-inflicted gunshot wound in France. It's believed that Vincent van Gogh used this gun when he died by suicide in 1890.
It went up for auction in June 2019. Chesnot/Getty ImagesVan Gogh’s auricular accident of 1888 may be due to the fact that he was likely dealing with an undiagnosed health issue at the time. The particular mental and/or physical illness van Gogh suffered from isn’t known—though a doctor did once diagnose him with a form of epilepsy—but suggestions dementia, hallucinatory psychosis, alcoholism, syphilis, turpentine poisoning, schizophrenia, manic-depressive disorder, borderline personality disorder, and more.On July 27, 1890, while living in the French village Auvers-sur-Oise, van Gogh into a field and shot himself in the abdomen. He was able to make it back to the inn where he was staying, but he died from the wound two days later, with Theo by his side. He was just 37 years old. Some have van Gogh was shot by someone else, but it’s generally believed the artist was responsible for his own death.
Vincent van Gogh didn’t sell many paintings commercially while he was alive.
Sunflowers, 1889, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). Credit: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)The colour of Vincent van Gogh's famous Sunflowers is changing over time, because of the mixture of pigments used by the Dutch master in his painting. Evidence for the process now comes from a detailed spectroscopic investigation of the Sunflowers version at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. A group of scientists headed by Letizia Monico from the Institute of Molecular Science and Technology (CNR-ISTM) of Perugia, the University of Perugia and the University of Antwerp, shone X-rays from DESY's lightsource PETRA III through tiny particles of paint taken from the painting. They describe their results in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition. The study also identifies areas of the painting that should be monitored particularly closely for any changes.
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) is famous for his use of bright yellow colours. The Dutch painter used so-called chrome yellows, a class of compounds consisting of lead, chromium and oxygen. Vilebrequin. 'There are different shades of the pigment, and not all of them are photochemically stable over time,' explains Monico. 'Lighter chrome yellow has sulphur mixed into it, and is susceptible to chemical degradation when exposed to light, which leads to a darkening of the pigment.' Lightfast chrome yellow has the chemical formula PbCrO4, whereas the light-sensitive type has the formula PbCr1-xSxO4, (with x exceeding about 0,4).The scientists examined a Sunflowers painting, which dates back to 1889, to determine whether van Gogh had used different types of chrome yellow when painting it. He produced three versions of the painting, one of which is on display at the National Gallery in London, one at the Seji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Museum of Art in Tokyo and one at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
Two small paint samples, measuring less than 1 millimetre each, were taken from the painting in Amsterdam and examined using DESY's X-ray source PETRA III. 'The analysis shows that the orange-yellow hues mainly contain the lightfast version of chrome yellow, whereas the light-sensitive type is mainly found in the pale yellow areas,' reports co-author Gerald Falkenberg, who is in charge of DESY's beamline P06, where the X-ray diffraction measurements were carried out.At the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, the team examined the chemical state of the paint samples. When light sensitive chrome yellow darkens, the chromium is reduced from its highest oxidation state CrVI to CrIII.
The scientists were indeed able to detect a relative proportion of 35 per cent CrIII on the surface of the paint. 'At least at the two sites from which the paint samples were taken, a colour change has occurred in the Sunflowers as a result of the reduction of chrome yellow,' says Monico. This suggests that the Sunflowers may originally have looked different from what we see today.The scientists used a mobile scanner to identify those parts of the which ought to be monitored particularly closely for possible changes. 'Since chrome yellow pigments were widely used by late 19th-century painters, this study also has broader implications for assessing the colours of other works of art,' emphasises co-author Koen Janssens, from the University of Antwerp.