Vase with daisies and anemones

Van Gogh's 1887 vase of daisies and anemones belongs to the series of flower still lifes he painted in Paris as systematic explorations of color. The combination of white daisies and blue-purple anemones offered him a range of tonal relationships — light against dark, warm against cool — that provided material for his ongoing color education. These Paris flower paintings are more exploratory and less resolved than the great Arles flower series that followed, and their freshness of approach reflects genuine discovery rather than mastery. The Kröller-Müller Museum holds this as a characteristic example of his Paris period still life.

The bouquet balances white daisies and vivid anemones in complementary color relationships. Van Gogh's brushwork is varied and energetic — the flowers built from individual strokes of different lengths and directions. The vase and background are handled more summarily, the floral arrangement receiving primary attention. The palette is higher-keyed than his Dutch period.