Vincent van Gogh painted Sunflowers in 1888 using oil on canvas. The painting is one of several sunflower still lifes from that summer, all based on the same motif. The canvas is 92.1 by 73.0 centimeters, roughly four by five in proportion. It hangs in the National Gallery, London, as part of the permanent collection. It shows a vase with fifteen sunflowers, which is why it is also called Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers. Van Gogh was 35 years old and living in Arles when he made it.

What the picture shows

A bouquet of about fifteen sunflowers stands in an earthenware vase on a table. The flowers are at different stages. Some are in full bloom with petals open, some wilt and droop, and some have already turned to seed heads. Several heads face you directly; others turn sideways or hang downward. The vase is two-toned: yellow-ochre at the top and pale cream at the bottom, with blue outlining. The name Vincent is written in blue on the vase. Behind it, a flat light yellow wall fills the background. The table top is a darker yellow-ochre, separated from the wall by a thin blue line. Green stems and leaves curl among the flower heads. Almost everything is yellow, ochre, and orange-brown, with only small touches of green and blue. The paint is thick, with visible strokes and textured seed heads.

When and why it was painted

In 1888 Van Gogh was living in Arles in the south of France. He had left Paris in February that year, and the stronger southern light encouraged him to use more intense color. He painted a group of sunflower still lifes that summer, using the motif to test color and thick paint. The National Gallery picture is one of these Arles versions, with fifteen flowers in a vase; he later made repetitions of the motif in early 1889, which are in other collections. At this point he had moved beyond Impressionist description and was building images with distinct, visible brushwork and strong color contrasts. Some of these sunflower pictures were intended for the room he prepared for Paul Gauguin. Post-impressionism describes this approach: real subjects, but color and paint handled expressively.

Seeing it at home

A hand-painted copy works best when it keeps the original's vertical 92.1 by 73.0 centimeter format. Do not flatten the yellows into one tone. Look for a varied surface with visible brushstrokes and thick paint, especially in the seed heads. The palette should stay within yellow, ochre, orange-brown, green, and blue, with the vase's name and blue outlines kept crisp.