Van Gogh – Sunflowers

by Martin Gayford

Paperback

About the author

Martin Gayford is an art critic and art historian. He studied philosophy at the University of Cambridge, and art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London. Over three decades, he has written prolifically about art and music in a series of major biographies, as well as contributing regularly to newspapers, magazines and exhibition catalogues. In parallel with his career as an art historian, he was art critic of The Spectator magazine and The Sunday Telegraph newspaper before becoming Chief Art Critic for the international television network, Bloomberg News. He has been a regular contributor to the British journal of art criticism, Modern Painters.

His books include a study of Van Gogh and Gauguin in Arles, The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles (Little Brown, 2006), which was published in Britain and the USA to critical acclaim, and has been translated, to date, into five languages; Constable in Love: Love, Landscape, Money and the Making of a Great Painter (Penguin, 2009), a study of John Constable’s romance with Maria Bicknell and their lives between 1809 and 1816; and A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney (Thames and Hudson, 2011).

Reviews

[Anesa]

reading about van gogh’s paintings (and, especially, all of his sunflowers) might as well be one of the most gut wrenching tear-jerking experiences i choose to put myself through. i just love how he conveyed so many emotions, life stages, with his brushes, and how we can still feel them so clearly (take me back to the national gallery. i need to admire them just a little longer).

[May Phoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,75⭐️

This is a good overview of Van Gogh's Sunflowers, their making and their impact on Gaughin and others. I would have appreciated mroe technical aspects and perhaps more research on the artistry of the Sunflowers.

[hana sof]

"The sunflowers also stood for life and light. Vincent explained to Willemien that his paintings were 'almost a cry of anguish while symbolising gratitude in the rustic sunflower' [856]. They flared with beauty and vitality, gave pleasure to the eye, then - as he noted - quickly wilted."

🌻

[Zoja Michelle]

i’m not sure what to rate this

[Abbie Ever After · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up at a Van Gogh exhibition at the National Gallery and this was a great informative read!