SUN FLOWERS
By VINCENT VAN GOGH
FOR the decoration of his room, Vincent conceived a series of panels of sunflowers against backgrounds of yellow & blue. He had already painted these golden Aowers in Paris, lying separately on the table.
His new conception was more lyrical, an effort to possess the full radiance of these joy giving flowers. His enthu siasm for them announces the aesthetic of the 1890's, which drew from the advanced biological & moral ideas of the time a kind of acsthetic vitalism, a confidence in nature as a model of health & fulfilment through growth & latent instinctive energies of the individual.
It is therefore not the traditional decorative still life of varied flowers but a piece of the sun, a poem of joy in light & intense growth.
Vincent had to rise with the sun & paint these plants rapidly in early morning before they faded. The intoxication of the yellow sunlight colours the entire canvas, it is indeed a composi tion of yellow.
With little formality or searching, VAN GOGH has found an arrangement which is free, balanced & generous in substance, exhibiting the whole scale of the qualities of this giant flower.
His brush, with its usual directness, seeks out the varied textures & tones of petals, disks, leaves & stems against the common luminous ground.
VINCENT VAN GOGH PAINTINGS
LEARN MORE ABOUT VINCENT PLEASE VISIT WWW.ARTHISTORYACADEMY.BLOGSPOT.COM &FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER & INSTAGRAM.