Van Gogh revisited (5)

This is the fifth in a series of Vincent van Gogh’s works that is featured as part of the works on display at the exhibition titled “Van Gogh in Paris: a Dialogue with Modernism” at Seoul Arts Center. ― ED.

Vincent van Gogh lived a life of poverty. After moving to Paris in March 1886, he started to paint still life to suit people's taste. Flowers were one of his favorite subjects as an acquaintance delivered flowers every week.

Van Gogh's 1886 painting "Vase with Flowers" from the Gemeente Museum collection in The Hague shows how he studied color through flowers.

In a letter he sent to English painter Horace M. Livens in summer 1886, Van Gogh wrote, "I have made a series of colour studies in painting, simply flowers, red poppies, blue corn flowers and myosotys, white and pink roses, yellow chrysanthemums

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seeking oppositions of blue with orange, red and green, yellow and violet seeking les tons rompus et neutres (worn-out and neutral tones) to harmonize brutal extremes."