It’s well known than Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin were good friends and there even exists a painting, by Paul Gauguin, of Vincent painting his famous sunflowers.
I think there’s a picture by Vincent of Paul as well…
Anyway, one story I heard (I hope it’s true)that I always really liked, is this:
After Paul left France for his new life in Tahiti on a paradise island, he wrote to Vincent that there were many exotic and beautiful flowers on the island, but sadly no sunflowers. Apparently Vincent wrote back and enclosed some sunflower seeds with his letter. Paul planted them and sunflowers supposedly grow in Tahiti to this day. I like to believe this is a true story…and I’d like to think that the seeds came from the very sunflowers in his famous paintings. I wonder…
Meanwhile “Sunflowers”, one version of which hangs in the National Gallery in London, might represent the Four Seasons, represented by buds, flowers, withering flowers and seeds.
One thing is for sure…poor old Vincent never anticpated his sunflowers being printed on umbrellas and magnets and birthday cards and handbags and pencils and rulers and jigsaws and…just about anything you can think of. I wonder if it would make him happy if he could see his paintings celebrated so widely?
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