Detail of Sunflowers by Van Gogh in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2010

Title: Sunflowers

Artist: Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, Zundert 1853–1890 Auvers-sur-Oise)

Date: 1887

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 17 x 24 in. (43.2 x 61 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1949

Accession Number: 49.41


Van Gogh painted four still lifes of sunflowers in Paris in late summer 1887. There is an oil sketch for this picture (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam) as well as another painting of two sunflowers also signed and dated 1887 (Kunstmuseum Bern), and a larger canvas showing four sunflower heads (Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo). Paul Gauguin acquired the two smaller works, and until the mid-1890s, when he sold his most prized possessions to finance his South Seas voyage, they held pride of place above the bed in his Paris apartment.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436524