Sunflowers
Sunflowers is van Gogh's most beloved floral series -- a radiating celebration of yellow in all its warmth, painted in Arles as he anticipated the arrival of friend and fellow artist Paul Gauguin.
Van Gogh's Sunflowers series consists of several paintings made in Arles in the summer of 1888. He intended them to decorate the 'Yellow House' where he hoped to establish an artists' commune with Paul Gauguin and others.
The paintings are a technical study in yellow: van Gogh used as many as nine different yellow pigments to capture the range of tones in the flowers from golden-yellow to deep amber. The flowers are depicted in various stages of bloom and decline, giving the series a meditation on time and vitality.
Gauguin described the Sunflowers as 'entirely his' -- unmistakably van Gogh. Today they are among the most reproduced artworks in history and the definitive example of van Gogh's bold, optimistic use of color.