#SunflowersLive

A global collaboration Click on the locations to find out more about the art museums who participated in Sunflowers Live Meet the museum curators who presented Sunflowers Live

Vincent van Gogh Van Gogh (1853 – 1890) is today one of the most popular of the Post-Impressionist painters, although he was not widely appreciated during his lifetime Van Gogh was born in Holland, the son of a pastor; he travelled to London in 1873, and first visited Paris in 1874. Over the next decade he was employed in various ways, including as a lay preacher.

By 1883 he had started painting, and in 1885-6 he attended the academy in Antwerp where he was impressed by Japanese prints and by the work of Rubens. On his return to Paris in 1886 he met artists such as Degas, Gauguin and Seurat, and as a result lightened the colours he used. In 1888 Van Gogh settled in Arles in Provence, where he was visited by Gauguin and painted the ‘Sunflowers’ series. Van Gogh is famed for the great vitality of his works which are characterised by expressive and emotive use of brilliant colour and energetic application of impastoed paint.

The Sunflowers View five of the original series painted by Van Gogh

Virtual Sunflowers 360 Take a virtual tour of the 'Sunflowers' with Willem van Gogh, the great grandson of Theo van Gogh, Vincent's brother and soulmate