Sunflowers
Cut sunflower heads lying on a table: sunflowers Van Gogh painted in Paris, before his famous series of sunflowers in a vase. Full commentary ↓
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Sunflowers is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh (1887) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 43.2 × 61 cm.
In the pictureThere is no vase. A few cut sunflower heads lie just as they are on a table, and their brown, seed-packed centers fill most of the picture. The yellow petals have begun to dry and curl at the tips. The background is a single bluish color, which makes the yellow and brown of the flowers stand out all the more.
BackgroundIt was painted in Paris in 1887. It came a year before the famous series of sunflowers in a vase painted in Arles, and at this time Van Gogh was interested in the texture of the wilting flower heads themselves. There is a record that Paul Gauguin admired these Paris sunflower paintings and traded one of his own works for them.
Puzzle tipAs a puzzle, it has many brown center pieces that look alike. Look at the direction in which the swirl of seeds turns outward from the middle to judge which part of a center a piece belongs to. Join the yellow petal pieces first to outline the flowers, then fill in the centers from the outer edge inward.
- Artist
- Dutch, Zundert 1853–1890 Auvers-sur-Oise
- Classification
- Paintings
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 43.2 x 61 cm
- Credit line
- Rogers Fund, 1949
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
In these collections: Masterpieces Everyone Knows · Flower Painting Puzzles
Stories about this work
- Wheat Fields, Cypresses and Sunflowers in the Met's Six Van Goghs
From a Paris self-portrait to the irises of Saint-Rémy, six paintings trace Van Gogh's last four years. Plus why the direction of the brushstrokes in each becomes a puzzle clue.
