Sunflowers

1888

Oil on canvas, 92.1 × 73 cm. The National Gallery, London

A vase of sunflowers stands on a table. The series was one of the earliest results of the expressive style he worked out in Arles.

Yellows of many shades fill the flowers, vase, wall and table. The museum links that yellow to happiness and the bright sunshine of Provence.
It was meant for Gauguin's bedroom in the Yellow House, ahead of his visit.
Look for every stage of life, from tight buds to drooping, seed-heavy heads.
He signed it on the vase itself, in blue paint.
The National Gallery bought it in 1924 with the Courtauld Fund. It hangs in a 1600s Italian frame.

Flower pieces of this kind draw on Dutch still lifes of the 1600s about life's brevity. Five versions survive in public collections; this is one.