Van Gogh's Sunflowers: meaning, history and where to see them

The Sunflowers are a series of still lifes that Vincent van Gogh painted between 1887 and 1889: four canvases of cut sunflowers in Paris and seven large canvases of sunflowers in a vase in Arles, in the south of France. The Arles ones are the most famous. Five are now in museums, in London, Amsterdam, Munich, Philadelphia and Tokyo, one is in a private collection and one was destroyed in 1945.

On this page you will find the story of the Sunflowers, the list of all the versions and where to see them, what they meant to Van Gogh, in his own words, and some lesser-known facts. And you will find the Twelve Sunflowers from Munich, the version on a light blue background, which we have printed on Amalfi paper.

The story of Van Gogh's Sunflowers

Paris, 1887: the cut sunflowers

Van Gogh, Sunflowers, Paris 1887. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Van Gogh painted his first sunflowers in Paris, in the summer of 1887, when he was living with his brother Theo in Montmartre. They are not flowers in a vase but cut sunflower heads, lying on the table and already wilting, against blue and dark backgrounds. There are four canvases, now in New York, Otterlo, Bern and Amsterdam. Paul Gauguin saw two of them and liked them so much that he asked for them in exchange for one of his own paintings: it was the start of a friendship that would return, through the sunflowers, a year later.

Arles, August 1888: the sunflowers for Gauguin

In February 1888 Van Gogh moved to Arles, in Provence, in search of the light of the south. He rented the Yellow House and dreamed of turning it into a "studio of the south", a shared home for painters. The first he invited was Gauguin. To welcome him, he decided to decorate his room with a series of sunflower canvases: "a symphony in blue and yellow", as he described it in his letters.

He began at the end of August, and worked fast. "I work on them every morning from sunrise, because the flowers wilt so quickly", he wrote to his brother Theo, adding that he was painting "with the gusto of a Marseillais eating bouillabaisse". In a few days four canvases were born: three sunflowers, five sunflowers, the twelve sunflowers on a light blue background now in Munich and the fifteen sunflowers on a yellow background now in London. Van Gogh signed only the two he considered the most successful, and he wrote the signature on the vase: simply Vincent.

Winter 1888-1889: the repetitions

Paul Gauguin, Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers, December 1888. Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum

Gauguin arrived in Arles on 23 October 1888, and the sunflowers were hanging in his bedroom. For two months the two painters worked side by side, and during that time Gauguin portrayed his friend painting the sunflowers. On seeing the portrait, according to Gauguin's own account, Van Gogh said: "It is certainly me, but me gone mad". Shortly afterwards, on the night of 23 December, their life together ended in the most dramatic way: after a quarrel Van Gogh cut off his ear and Gauguin left for Paris.

In the following months, once he had recovered, Van Gogh painted three repetitions of his August sunflowers: one of the twelve sunflowers (now in Philadelphia) and two of the fifteen (now in Amsterdam and Tokyo). Gauguin had asked him for one of the sunflower paintings; Vincent did not want to part with the original but planned a repetition for him.

How many Sunflowers are there and where are they

In all, Van Gogh's sunflower paintings number eleven: four from Paris and seven from Arles. Here are the ones with sunflowers in a vase, the most searched for:

• Three Sunflowers (August 1888), green-blue background: private collection, in the United States.
• Five Sunflowers (August 1888), dark blue background: it was in Japan, in Ashiya, and was destroyed in a fire during a bombing raid in 1945.
• Twelve Sunflowers (August 1888), light blue background: Munich, Neue Pinakothek. This is the version we have printed.
• Fifteen Sunflowers (August 1888), yellow on yellow: London, National Gallery, which bought it in 1924. This is the most famous version.
• Fifteen Sunflowers (repetition, late 1888 or early 1889): Tokyo, Sompo Museum of Art.
• Fifteen Sunflowers (repetition, January 1889): Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum.
• Twelve Sunflowers (repetition, January 1889): Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers, August 1888. London, National Gallery

The London version is the image of the Sunflowers that almost everyone has in mind: fifteen yellow flowers on a yellow background, in a yellow vase, on a yellow table. A gamble no painter had ever taken, and one Van Gogh won by playing only on shades. The Amsterdam version is his most faithful repetition, with a lighter background, almost lemon.

Sunflowers, January 1889. Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum

The Twelve Sunflowers in Munich: the version on a light blue background

Van Gogh, Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, August 1888, oil on canvas, 91 x 72 cm (35.8 x 28.3 in). Munich, Neue Pinakothek

Of the four August paintings, the Twelve Sunflowers is the most luminous. Here Van Gogh sets the yellow flowers against a light blue, the complementary colour, which makes them vibrate as if lit by the Provençal sun. The vase is yellow and white, the table top orange, and on the vase, in blue, is the signature Vincent.

The signature "Vincent" on the vase

The flowers are not all the same, and this is the secret of the painting. Some have just opened, with their petals stretched out like rays; others are ripe, with a dark heart full of seeds; others still bow their heads and lose their petals. In a single vase Van Gogh puts the whole life of a flower. The paint is laid on in thick, raised brushstrokes: up close, the hearts of the sunflowers look sculpted.

Detail: sunflowers in bloom and sunflowers wilting

The painting has been in Munich since around 1912 and belongs to the Bavarian State Painting Collections. The Neue Pinakothek, which houses it, has been closed for some years for renovation: some of its masterpieces are on show in the nearby Alte Pinakothek, so before you go it is worth checking where the Sunflowers are on display.

Van Gogh's Sunflowers on Amalfi paper, to hang at home

Van Gogh painted the Sunflowers for a very simple reason: to make a friend's room more beautiful and welcoming. It is still their best purpose today. The yellow and blue of the Twelve Sunflowers bring light to any wall, even on winter days, and anyone who walks in recognises them at first glance.

We have printed the Twelve Sunflowers from Munich on a sheet of handmade Amalfi paper, the oldest paper in Italy: its soft surface takes the raised brushstrokes of the painting well, and around the image remains the margin with the deckled edges of the handmade process. The sheet measures 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in) and is mounted in a handmade beech frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in) in all. Each print comes with a certificate of authenticity, also on Amalfi paper, signed by the craftsman who printed it.

Why it is not a poster

Printed on glossy paper, the Sunflowers go flat: the relief of the brushstrokes and the thousand shades of yellow disappear. We chose the oldest paper in Italy.

What the Sunflowers meant to Van Gogh

Gratitude and friendship. The Sunflowers were born as a gift: they were the welcome for Gauguin, the promise of a home for artists. Van Gogh himself, in his letters, links sunflowers to the idea of gratitude. That is why they have become the symbol of friendship and hospitality.

The sun and life. The sunflower is the flower that follows the sun, and for Van Gogh yellow was the colour of light, of hope, of the south. In his Arles paintings yellow comes back everywhere: in the Yellow House, in the wheat fields, in The Starry Night with its blazing stars.

The passing of time. In the same vase there are fresh flowers and wilting ones. As in older still lifes, the Sunflowers remind us that beauty does not last, and for that very reason it must be painted, and looked at, straight away.

His signature. In January 1889 Van Gogh wrote to Theo that, just as other painters had become famous for a flower, the peony or the hollyhock, "the sunflower is mine, in a way". He was right: today the sunflower is Van Gogh's flower.

Five curious facts about the Sunflowers

The 1987 record. On 30 March 1987, in London, the auction house Christie's sold one of the fifteen-sunflower versions for £24.75 million, about $40 million: at the time it was the highest price ever paid for a painting. It was bought by the Japanese insurance company Yasuda, and it is the one now on show in Tokyo.

The lost painting. The five-sunflower version was bought by a Japanese collector in 1920 and was destroyed in 1945, during the Second World War. Only photographs of it remain.

The soup at the National Gallery. On 14 October 2022 two activists from the environmental group Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup at the London Sunflowers. The painting, protected by glass, was not damaged, but the photo went round the world.

The signatures. Van Gogh signed only the paintings he thought were successful: of the four August sunflowers, only two bear the name Vincent on the vase, the Twelve in Munich and the Fifteen in London.

Sunflowers at the funeral. When Van Gogh died, in July 1890, his friends covered his coffin with yellow flowers, dahlias and sunflowers, as the painter Émile Bernard, who was there, recalled.

Where to hang it, and who to give it to

In the living room, above a sideboard or a light-coloured console, where the yellow of the sunflowers becomes the point of light in the room. In the kitchen or dining room, next to the table. In the hallway, to welcome whoever arrives, just as Van Gogh wanted to welcome Gauguin. And as a gift for a new home, for a friend you want to thank, or for anyone who loves Van Gogh and Provence. If you like Van Gogh's Arles period, read our article on The Poet's Garden, painted for the same room as Gauguin's. And if you want the Sunflowers always before your eyes, there is our print of Van Gogh's Sunflowers on Amalfi paper.

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