Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ : a longer look

Excellent morning’s workshop at the National Gallery looking in detail at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers with Gill Hart.

We started by looking at how the picture was painted for Gaugin’s room at the Yellow House and then at how it was painted, taking a close look at the surface of the working and thinking about its composition.

We then moved into the galleries to look at other works from the same period but particularly the picture of the chair. We discussed how it loo had a simple composition and many of the same techniques. Unfortunately we couldn’t look at Sunflowers itself because the current exhibition is so busy.

After coffee we talked about the role sunflowers played in Van Gogh’s work and how they appear in pictures throughout his career. And finally we looked at why Van Gogh made copies of two of his sunflower pictures and why is it so interesting to see the London version and the Amsterdam copy together.

All in all a fascinating morning and I can’t wait to do the exhibition.

 

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