Hello my artful friends

This month of March we dedicate to : Vincent Willem Van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890).

We celebrate his 165th birthday this month.

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In this first week of the van Gogh month we want to look at his still life paintings.

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One of the most well known are his sunflower series. He painted multiple studies and oil versions of the sunflower theme during his stay in Paris and in Arles.

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Sunflowers (original title, in French: Tournesols) is the name of two series of still life paintings by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. The first series, executed in Paris in 1887, depicts the flowers lying on the ground, while the second set, executed a year later in Arles, shows a bouquet of sunflowers in a vase. In the artist's mind both sets were linked by the name of his friend Paul Gauguin, who acquired two of the Paris versions. About eight months later van Gogh hoped to welcome and to 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. After Gauguin's departure, van Gogh imagined the two major versions as wings of the Berceuse Triptych, and finally he included them in his Les XX in Bruxelles exhibit.

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These are some of his studies




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In August 1888, living in Arles at that time he proceeded to start the paintings of the sunflowers that would become the most famous paintings of van Gogh.

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He painted four versions of the sunflowers and repeated three of them in January 1889
All in all we look at seven different versions of the still life composition of sunflowers in a vase.

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We hope that this piece of information encourages you to try your own version of this iconic subject.

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Until next time

Sisters Art Lab