Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers

Van Gogh's Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers, painted at Arles in 1889 and now at the Sompo Museum of Art in Tokyo, belongs to the series of sunflower paintings he made to decorate the Yellow House for Gauguin's arrival. This version, showing approximately fifteen flowers in a simple earthenware vase, was one of the most sought-after Van Gogh works in history — it sold at auction in 1987 for what was then the highest price ever paid for a painting. The Sompo Museum's acquisition — by the Japanese insurance company Yasuda Fire — became an international cultural event. It remains one of Van Gogh's most iconic works.

The sunflowers fill the canvas with an extraordinary range of yellows — from pale lemon through mid-yellow to deep ochre and near-brown in the aged blooms. Van Gogh's impasto builds each flower head as a distinct physical presence, the paint applied in thick ridges that create actual texture. The simple vase grounds the composition, its earthenware warmth anchoring the explosion of floral forms above.