polity french third republicconcept:era modern
Irises
Oil on canvas (1889) by Vincent van Gogh, painted at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Depicts irises in the asylum garden with the characteristic swirling vitality of his Saint-Rémy period. Held at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Scholarly Significance
Van Gogh's first painting at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum; an intense study in color and form from the asylum garden.
Notes
- ·Painted in May 1889, during the first week of Van Gogh's voluntary stay at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole.
- ·Van Gogh called it 'the lightning conductor for my illness' — painting as therapy.
- ·Exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in September 1889 in Paris.
- ·Sold at Sotheby's New York on November 11, 1987 for $53.9 million to Alan Bond — then the highest price ever paid at auction for a painting.
- ·Alan Bond was unable to pay immediately; the painting was sold on to the Getty in 1990.
- ·The single white iris among the blue field has been interpreted as a motif of isolation.