Flowers In The Arts Submitted By: Lanny
Hintz The delicate beauty of flowers has long inspired the works
of writers, musicians, and artists alike. One such example of
this is the series of paintings created by famous artist Vincent
Van Gogh, titled “Sunflowers”.Among this collection
are three nearly identical paintings of fifteen sunflowers, followed
by two equally identical paintings of twelve sunflowers. These
five paintings were done while he was living in Arles, a city
located in the south of France, in August of 1888. The later similar
paintings were done early in the following year.
The first of the paintings was created
to serve as decoration in his friend Paul Gauguin’s home.
Thus began the Sunflower series. The paintings depict sunflowers
in all stages of life, from early bloom to nearly the end of the
flower’s existence, where the petals are depicted as wilting
away.These paintings were unique at the time because of their
vivid yellow color. New pigments had just been invented which
made the coloring possible. The brightness of the flowers was
something that people hadn’t seen, and thus made the paintings
immediately valuable.Van Gogh, in a letter he wrote to his brother,
explained,
“The sunflower is mine in a way.”
He was speaking of the true uniqueness and innovation of the appearance
of the painting relative to other paintings he and his contemporaries
had done.In March 1987, the true worth of these paintings was
displayed when Japanese insurance magnate Yasuo Goto paid nearly
$40 million for one of the paintings in the series. This was a
new record for Van Gogh paintings. At the time, he may have made
the purchase for himself or for the company
he owned, which was called the Yasuda Fire
and Marine Insurance Company of Japan. Either way, the painting
now rests in the Seiji Togo Yasuda Memorial Museum of Modern Art
in Tokyo. Following the purchase was a brief scandal in which
the painting was suspected to be a forgery; however, it was concluded
to be genuine.Van Gogh was struck by the inherent beauty in these
simple flowers. He was inspired by their hope in the first bloom
and their honesty in their wilting death. He was not alone in
that opinion; his work was followed by many similar paintings.
Even in modern contemporary art, we find a vast majority of still
life paintings to be inspired by flowers in various stages of
life and death.About the Author:Lanny Hintz writes about
Henry Fields Nursery , BloomingBulb
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