The sunflower paintings had a special significance for Van Gogh: they communicated 'gratitude', he wrote.
Vincent wanted to be known as the painter of sunflowers
His fellow painters thought that sunflowers were perhaps somewhat coarse and unrefined. But this is exactly what Vincent liked, and he also enjoyed painting flowers that had gone to seed. He gave sunflowers the lead role in several paintings.
About eight months later, Van Gogh hoped to welcome and impress Gauguin again with Sunflowers, now part of the painted Décoration for the Yellow House that he prepared for the guestroom of his home in Arles, where Gauguin was supposed to stay.
Sunflowers were also sacred to the ancient Incan people as a representation of their sun god, Inti. In England, sunflowers represent gratitude, while they represent loyalty and devotion in Greece. Though sunflowers have been assigned a variety of meanings, everything the sunflower represents is positive.
The Four Cut Sunflowers are in Otterlo, at the Kroller-Muller Museum. The Two Cut Sunflowers are in Amsterdam, at the Van Gogh Museum. The other Two Cut Sunflowers is in Bern, at the Kunstmuseum and another Two Cut Sunflowers is at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.
But the protesters hadn't ruined van Gogh's “Sunflowers.” The painting, enclosed by glass, was completely unharmed; the National Gallery later confirmed that only the frame had been slightly damaged and that the protesters had been arrested.
'Van Gogh's use of yellow is considered to derive from the sun, and appears to be related to an ambivalence to his father, as expressed in sun worship, while the complementary colours red and green were correlated with his bisexuality and castration anxiety.
What is their meaning? Sunflowers represent: A long life and lasting happiness, as most varieties stand in full bloom throughout the summer. Good fortune and positive opportunities — a lucky charm for someone beginning a new career path or starting a new job.
But many of the more than 5m people who visit the National Gallery every year will be unaware that the painting belongs to a series of four extraordinary sunflower still lifes that Van Gogh created in less than a week during the summer of 1888, when a cold northerly wind prevented him from working outdoors.
Van Gogh uses the impasto technique to great effect in Sunflowers, creating an image that is even more dynamic due to the fact that the oil paint recreates the three dimensional textures of the sunflowers he was painting.
7 paintings with sunflowers in a vase, in Arles:
So Van Gogh painted 11 sunflower paintings with 10 + 77 = 87 sunflowers in total.
To take it a notch further, in the mental health world sunflowers are symbolic for resiliency, endurance and hope. Hellen Keller stated, “Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It's what sunflowers do”.
Alongside van Gogh's use of yellow in “Sunflowers,” the artist also features green, orange, and a touch of red and blue. Blue and orange are opposite colors in the color wheel based in pigment, as are red and green.
As a beautiful, vigorous native crop, sunflowers help pollinators, beneficial insects, song birds, and other wildlife, and improve soil with a deep taproot. It's a great rotation crop and has the potential to add income for specialty markets (see more on that below).
* Many people with a 'hidden disability' – such as neurodivergence, hearing loss and epilepsy – carry a sunflower lanyard as a way of communicating that they have a disability.
How to use colour like Van Gogh – Palette. For Starry Night, van Gogh drew colour from his proven – but often toxic – palette. He was a heavy user of both Zinc Yellow and Chrome Yellow, often combining the two.
It is good to love many things, for therein lies strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done with love is well done. ”
Yellow was Vincent Van Gogh's favorite color. He preferred yellow ochre in the beginning of his career, adding the newly discovered pigments cadmium yellow and chrome yellow later on. He transformed the light in his landscapes into pure color.
(CBS) -- A priceless Vincent Van Gogh painting was splattered with tomato soup by a pair of environmental activists at London's National Gallery. The soup slightly damaged the frame of the artist's famous "Sunflowers" painting, the gallery said.
It's important to clarify that the 134-year-old painting is unharmed. The National Gallery has confirmed there is minor damage to the frame but none to the painting, which is protected by a glass panel.
How much is 'Sunflowers' worth? When Van Gogh's own copy of the original version went on auction at Christie's, as much as 40 million dollars was paid to purchase it. Taking into account inflation, this painting would have cost $100m. It was purchased by Tokyo-based Yasuda insurance company.
This one's easy: no, Vincent didn't have any children.