“Irises”
Tonight, it’s cold and dark outside and so I decided to share some comfort art, the wonderful van Gogh.
“Irises” is a lively and colorful oil on canvas painting by the Dutch Post-Impressionist artist, Vincent van Gogh, from 1889. Van Gogh painted this piece within a week of living at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, an asylum housed in a former twelfth century monastery in Saint-Rémy, southern France, and just one year before his untimely death. It was the first of 130 paintings that van Gogh created while he was trying to improve his mental health.
Van Gogh self-medicated with art, which he thought helped keep him sane. He had entered the asylum in hopes to cure the overwhelming personal angst he was suffering. The gardens at the asylum provided van Gogh with access to nature and inspiration for many new paintings, including this piece and several other paintings of irises, lilacs, roses, and sunflowers. He found the strolls through the gardens therapeutic.
Van Gogh thought of this piece as a study. It was influenced by Japanese woodblock prints which were very much in style at the time. This is evident in the black contouring of the flowers themselves, in the cropped scope of the work, and with the bright colors. During a time when Impressionism and dots of color were in vogue, van Gogh decided to craft each single flower petal with its own unique shape and shading.
This work was first exhibited in 1889 at the Salon des Indépendants at their annual show, after being submitted by his brother, Theo. Writing to Vincent to tell him of the exhibition, Theo said, “[It] strikes the eye from afar. The Irises are a beautiful study full of air and life.” I agree.
“Irises” remains one of the most expensive paintings ever sold, selling at an auction in 1987 for 53.9 million dollars, which in 2022 dollars would be 132.3 million.
“Irises” is currently on display at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California.
For more on Vincent Van Gogh, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
