Van Gogh: Irises and Roses

Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890) brought his work in Provence to a close with exuberant bouquets of Spring flowers – two of irises and two of roses, in contrasting formats and color schemes – in which he sought to import a “calm, unremitting ardor” to his “last touch of the brush”. Painted on the eve of his departure from the asylum at Saint-Rémy and conceived as a series or ensemble on a par with the Sunflowers decoration painted earlier in Arles, the group includes the Metrpolitan Museum’s Irises and Roses and their counterparts: the upright Irises from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, and the horizontal Roses from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Vincent van Gogh, Roses, 1890. Oil on canvas. The Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Collection, gift of Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, 1993, bequest of Walter H. Annenberg, 2002

This exhibition will reunite the four paintings for the first time since the artist’s death and is timed to coincide with the blooming of the flowers that captured his attention. It will open 125 years to the week that Van Gogh announced to his brother Theo, on May 11 and 13, 1890, that he was working on these “large bouquets”, and will provide a singular opportunity to reconsider Van Gogh artistic aims and the impact of dispersal and color fading on his intended results.