Vase with Irises

Among the first works Van Gogh completed after arriving at Auvers-sur-Oise from Saint-Rémy in May 1890, this vase of irises represents his immediate return to the flower subjects that had sustained him in the asylum. The transition from Saint-Rémy to Auvers was one of the most significant of his career: confined for a year in an institution, he was now free to move through the village and its surrounding countryside, and the sense of release is palpable in the work's freshness. The irises may have been brought from the Saint-Rémy garden — he had painted them there obsessively in 1889 — or observed in the gardens of Auvers itself. The composition was conceived in dialogue with his famous Roses canvas of the same period, both works featuring the explosive close-up approach to cut flowers that he developed at this final stage of his career. The Van Gogh Museum holds this alongside several other key Auvers works.

Dense impasto in blue, violet, and white iris petals is set against a vivid yellow-orange background — a colour clash of extreme intensity. The surrounding colour creates a visual vibration that makes the irises appear to advance aggressively off the surface. The vase below is loosely rendered, serving primarily as an anchoring device for the explosive floral mass above.