Sunflowers

One of Vincent van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' series, painted intensively in Arles between 1888 and 1889 in anticipation of Paul Gauguin's arrival. The pictures are a radical experiment in monochrome: petals, vase, wall, and tabletop built entirely from variations of chrome and lemon yellow, ochre, and olive — the 'yellow of hope' that Van Gogh himself declared the most cheerful of colours. Five autograph versions survive, dispersed across London, Munich, Philadelphia, Amsterdam, and Tokyo, each differing subtly in number of blooms and the placement of the artist's signature.