Year of creation: 1889.
Type: Oil on canvas.
Dimensions: 71*93 cm.
Location: Getty Museum, California, USA.

irises

Painting "Irises" painted by the famous Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh in 1889. This picture was created a year before the death of the great artist. When he painted this picture, he was in a psychiatric hospital, which was located next to Saint-Remy-de-Provence, then he no longer had a chance of recovery. He was constantly monitored by the doctors of the clinic, as he often had bouts of aggression.

Description

This picture is very different from those works that he created before it. Perhaps the reason for this change in style was the mental illness of the artist. This is not the style that everyone is used to seeing in pictures. van gogh. In this work there is no tension, despondency and gloomy shades that drove people into depression and caused bad thoughts. This picture, on the contrary, contains light, lightness and purity. In style, this painting can be attributed to a series of Japanese motifs, on which Van Gogh painted several paintings.

Flowering branches of almonds

The painting "Irises" depicts a small part of the meadow, on which only flowers grow. In addition to irises, there are other flowers here, but irises still occupy the main position, which is why the picture got its name. The picture depicts plants in an unusual perspective, flowers fill almost the entire space of the picture. The image does not look animated, it is frozen. The composition of the picture makes the eye involuntarily move to the upper left corner. There is an unusual symmetry in this painting, the earth is combined with the flowers in the upper left part of the painting, and the light irises lie on the center line of the painting.

Technique

In the technique used in drawing irises, one can feel the trace of Japanese painting. Thin light lines, filling individual elements of the picture with one color. But not the whole picture is made in this style, some details can still be attributed to impressionism. But the mixture of these two styles does not have a negative effect on the picture, but on the contrary makes the picture even more beautiful and unusual.

Painting "Irises", Van Gogh. updated: October 25, 2017 by: Valentine

The French art critic Octave Mirbeau once paid 300 francs for a painting depicting an unusual flower bed with blooming irises. In 1987, the same canvas was already valued at almost $54 million at Sotheby's. Alan Bond tried to buy Irises, but he did not have the money to complete the deal. The Getty Museum in Los Angeles entered the game, outbidding the painting in 1990. The cultural institution has won a lot, because now everyone can admire one of the most mysterious paintings by the Dutch artist.

“Lightning rod for illness” (bipolar personality disorder), as Van Gogh himself called the picture, does not fit into his artistic style so much that it still amazes viewers. There are no thick and caustic, even poisonous shades here - “Irises” are filled with the airy softness of pastels. And it’s even strange that the canvas was written in 1889, when the painter was undergoing treatment in Saint-Remy-de-Provence. So strange, how mysterious is the fact that he wrote it a year before his death. The solitude and unique architecture of the French villages inspired in him a serenity that became a cure for the disease. Irises, as is known from French folklore, mean the awakening of nature and the resurrection of all the dead, because Van Gogh noticed that when he writes, the disease subsides. The picture is made with the indescribable art of a virtuoso who plays his last concert.

Irises clearly shows the influence of Japanese ukiyo-e, elegant engravings with outlined objects presented from an unusual angle. Their details were drawn, and some parts of the engravings were filled with an unreal extraterrestrial glow. The iris field is full of such peace, such lightness and transparency that it seems that this is not Van Gogh at all. "Irises" are simple and unique, they amaze with their serenity and the ability to relieve internal tension in everyone who has even seen a reproduction. The picture simply breathes with watercolor, translucency and makes you look at it for more than one hour.

The angle on the canvas, however, is unusual even for Van Gogh. A simple landscape - flowers and a bush are similar to what a small child or a person sitting on the ground could see and perceive. The entire space of the picture is covered with irises, only the yellowish-green grass gives a slight hint that the lawn has a continuation. The red-orange earth seems to repeat the shades of flowers in the flower bed. It seems that such disproportion will continue indefinitely, but a lone white iris balances the whole picture, creating its harmony.

It is also interesting that “Irises” is not a static frozen picture, but a canvas that has a peculiar, Van Gogh movement, built in such a way that you need to look at it exactly diagonally - from the left to the top. The asymmetry and disproportionality of the work is actually ostentatious: the land in the lower right corner is balanced by the orange and yellow colors on the club. The clarity of the horizontal of the picture is maintained by white and pale blue irises.

It is noteworthy that the influence of Japanese engravings is not entirely reflected in the picture. It has the same graceful thin lines of ukiyo-e, surprisingly woven with impressionistic transitions and halftones. Moreover, such a mixture of styles by Van Gogh is not rough, but quite harmonious, one that gives the picture originality and attractive charm. Thanks to this synthesis of the sophistication of the East and the free-thinking of Europe, the artist was able to convey the freshness of irises, their expressive coloring.

He mixes shades in a special way, as if playing with them. The soft rounded shape of irises echoes the orange flowers, the smoothness of the outlines of the leaves. The coloring of the irises themselves resembles colorful calming waves, smoothly flowing into each other. Their unique energy creates fragility, lightness and airiness of the pattern.

Irises have no background, only warm soft earth tones depicted in blurry stripes and the warming glow of a flower bed. One that penetrates from the picture into the outside world and gives it visibility and tenderness. The use of various shades of green, yellow and purple creates a real rhythm of colors, and the correctness of the lines completes the drawing. A rich and at the same time delicate selection of colors is so striking that the flowers seem weightless.

Nevertheless, the picture is bright and dynamic, it can freeze and come to life in a second. Simple, but at the same time luxurious irises, in addition to tenderness and airiness, have rich ripeness and excellent juiciness. This is perhaps the only painting by Van Gogh where contrasts are played. Purple-blue irises contrast with the green tone of the leaves, bright flowers in the flower bed. The terracotta red soil draws the plants towards it, and the hint of the jade green meadow in the background makes the irises reach for it as well. The painting "Irises" is filled not only with impressionistic emotions, but also with impressions. It is impossible to reliably determine what “experiences” the flowers have at this moment, one can only catch the very impression of this experience. Irises at the same time lean towards the power of the earth and want to rush upwards to the meadow.

There is a special vitality in the picture, which is typical for each of Van Gogh's works. He advocates "for" brightness, even aggressiveness, a somewhat rattling image and irresistibility of life. In "Irises" there is no insane flow of ideas and attempts to drown out the voices of demons - they have a subtle invaluable beauty that not everyone can appreciate and feel.

And although critics said that the paintings of this artist are stunning with their expression, that the color in his image becomes a real jewel, Van Gogh was destined for posthumous recognition. At 37, he committed suicide, and his brother Theo created a museum that glorified Vincent. Once art was a consolation for the demon-tormented artist, now he has become one of the already recognized geniuses who loved life and knew how to see unusual beauty in it.

The article by Oksana Kopenkina, which I have chosen for you, dear members of the Art website, tells about one of Van Gogh's masterpieces.

On my own behalf, I allowed to add three illustrations to the article (at the end), and at the very beginning - a few brief biographical information about the artist.

Vincent van Gogh is a famous artist and a scandalous figure in the art world of the 19th century. Today, his work continues to be controversial. The ambiguity of the paintings and their fullness of meanings make us take a deeper look at them and at the life of their creator.

Childhood and family

He was born in 1853 in the Netherlands, in the small village of Grot-Zundert. His father was a Protestant pastor, and his mother was from a family of bookbinders. Vincent van Gogh had 2 younger brothers and 3 sisters. It is known that at home he was often punished for his wayward character and temper. The men in the artist's family worked in the church or sold paintings and books.

From childhood, he was immersed in 2 contradictory worlds - the world of faith and the world of art.

Education

At the age of 7, the elder Van Gogh began attending a village school.

Just a year later, he switched to home schooling, and after another 3 he left for a boarding school.

In 1866, Vincent became a student at Willem II College. Although the departure and separation from loved ones were not easy for him, he achieved some success in his studies. Here he received drawing lessons. After 2 years, Vincent van Gogh interrupted his basic education and returned home.

In the future, he repeatedly made attempts to get an art education, but none of them was successful.

Searching for himself From 1869 to 1876, working as a seller of paintings in a large firm, he lived in The Hague, Paris and London.

During these years, he got to know painting very closely, visited galleries, daily in contact with works of art and their authors, and for the first time tried himself as an artist.

After his dismissal, he worked in 2 English schools as a teacher and assistant pastor.

Then he returned to the Netherlands and sold books.

But most of the time he spent on drawings and translating fragments of the Bible into foreign languages.

Six months later, having settled in Amsterdam with his uncle Jan van Gogh, he was preparing to enter the university in the department of theology.

However, he quickly changed his mind and went first to the Protestant missionary school near Brussels, and then to the mining village of Paturazh in Belgium.

Since the mid 80s of the XIX century. and until the end of his life, Vincent van Gogh actively painted and even sold some paintings.

Some time in 1888 he spent in a psychiatric hospital with a diagnosis of epilepsy of the temporal lobes.

The incident with cutting off the earlobe, because of which he ended up in the hospital, is well known - Van Gogh, after a quarrel with Gauguin, separated it from his left ear and took it to a familiar prostitute.

The artist died in 1890 from a bullet wound.

According to some versions, the shot was fired by him.

And now the article itself by Oksana Kopenkina.

"Irises" by Van Gogh. About the flower masterpiece of the artist

Vincent Van Gogh. Irises. 1889 Getty Museum, Los Angeles

"Irises" Van Gogh created at a difficult moment in his life. While in an asylum for the mentally ill in Saint-Remy (southeast France).

A few months earlier, he cut off his earlobe with a razor, having experienced a severe nervous breakdown. Since then, about once a month, he had seizures. He fell into oblivion for several hours.

"Irises" created by a madman?

No one knows what disease struck the artist. He may have suffered from epilepsy (like his uncle and sister). But this means that between seizures he was absolutely sane.

Or maybe it was panic attacks. But when they pass, then the person is also quite adequate.

In any case, one need only look at his Irises to see that it was written by a person of sound mind.

Moreover, a person who, with every fiber of his soul, wanted to recover and continue to work.

Vincent Van Gogh. Self-portrait with cut off ear and pipe. January 1889 Zurich Kunsthaus Museum,

Private collection of Niarchos.

After all, Van Gogh had a dream. He wanted to change painting and prove to others that his method of work has the right to life.

In the end, he wanted to sell his work in order to gain financial independence and pay off his brother Theo (who paid him a monthly allowance).

When Van Gogh created "Irises", all these hopes still flickered in him. He was sure that painting would help him overcome his illness.

Therefore, the picture is so bright, positive.

It reflects the artist's mood for the best.

What is special about Van Gogh's Irises?

In the picture we see a flower carpet. There is no horizon or sky.

Van Gogh made sure that the viewer's attention was riveted only to the flowers. This is a very unusual angle, which was almost never seen before in Western painting.

But it wasn't Van Gogh who came up with the idea of ​​writing like that. This angle is often found in Japanese masters.

When the artist brings the viewer very close to the object. And the background is neutral.

This is how the famous Katsushika Hakusai worked.

Katsushika Hakusai. Irises and grasshopper. 1820s Metropolitan Museum, New York

But after Van Gogh, this technique is more common.

Claude Monet will write more than one such picture. Including irises.

Claude Monet. Irises and water lilies. 1914-1917 Private collection

The same idea will be picked up by representatives of modernity. Among which the most striking was Gustav Klimt.

Gustav Klimt. Blooming garden. 1907 Ro Foundation for the Third World, Zurich

But Van Gogh's Irises are interesting not only from the angle.

If you compare them with the work of Monet, then the difference in the image of flowers immediately catches your eye.

Monet's flowers are written indistinctly, in an impressionistic manner. Only a juicy, almost luminous color sets them apart in space.

Van Gogh's flowers are more realistic and believable.

Vincent Van Gogh. Irises (detail). 1889

Claude Monet. Irises and water lilies (detail)

At the same time, the earth is written in a completely different technique. Separate, multi-colored strokes.

As a result, we get the impression of looseness of the soil.

There aren't any shades here. Powdery, pink, red, yellow, brown.

And sometimes even blue. This technique is somewhat similar to pointillism.

Van Gogh. Irises (detail). 1889 Getty Museum, Los Angeles

This is when the artist paints with separate dots or strokes of different colors. With the expectation that at a distance, unmixed colors will combine into a single color mass.

One of the most famous pointillists was Paul Signac. Which just introduced Van Gogh to the technique of color separation.

Paul Signac. Red buoy. 1895 Musée d'Orsay, Paris

This is very interesting. Before Van Gogh, no one had combined two such different techniques on one canvas. Realism and pointillism.

But he kind of softened them up. Therefore, nothing repels. As if it was the only way to write these irises and soil.

This once again speaks of how much Van Gogh sought to learn from others. But at the same time, he processed everything in his own way. He deliberately sought a new path.

Agree, a crazy person is hardly capable of such a thing.

Is there an encrypted message in Irises?

Surely you have noticed that a lone white iris grows among the blue flowers. What did Van Gogh mean by this? We are tempted to look for a hidden meaning in this.

Maybe the artist means his own loneliness?

After all, no one believed in him. Except for his brother Theo and himself.

Hardly. Van Gogh did not like symbolism. I tried to draw only the real world.

He was more important expressiveness.

That is, the ability to express the essence of things through color and form. The way he saw and understood her.

That's why he so easily retreated from realism for the sake of this essence. Bright colors ("Sunflowers").

Hypertrophied facial features ("The Potato Eaters")

But he did not want to add something on purpose in order to encrypt a certain message.

Therefore, almost always wrote from nature, and not from memory.

The only exception is "Starlight Night".

And that was only because Van Gogh could not leave the hospital at night. And involuntarily he had to use his imagination.

Not without reason, in addition to irises in the picture, there are also velvet.

The history of "Irises" from the death of Van Gogh to the present day

We are very lucky that the "Irises" have come down to us.

The fact is that Van Gogh presented many works created in Saint-Remy to its inhabitants.

To the head doctor, his son and even some patients.

The fate of many of these paintings is very sad. After all, everyone thought that these were just pictures of a sick person.

And they were treated accordingly.

So, the doctor's son used Van Gogh's paintings as targets, shooting them mercilessly.

And a local photographer, who is fond of painting, scraped off the paint from a dozen Van Gogh paintings.

After the death of the artist, "Irises" ended up with his mother. Again, it's a miracle they survived.

The fact is that Van Gogh's mother did not understand her son's work.

When, after the death of her husband, she moved to another city, she left several dozen of his early works in the attic.

She just didn't need them. Their fate is still unknown.

After her death in 1907, the painting was bought by a collector for 300 francs.

And already in 1990, she went to the Getty Museum (Los Angeles).

For ... 54 million dollars.

Read about other works of the master in the article "5 masterpieces of Van Gogh".

Vincent van Gogh's irises are one of the most famous and memorable subjects of the great Dutch painter. Written a year before the artist's death, Iri...

The painting "Irises" by Van Gogh: a description of where the original is located

By Masterweb

"Irises" by Vincent van Gogh is one of the most famous and memorable subjects of the great Dutch painter. Written a year before the death of the artist, "Irises" became like an outlet in his work, striking in their liveliness, gentle color reproduction and general pacification of the plot.

History of creation

The artist himself spoke of this painting as a "lightning rod for his illness", since it was painted during treatment in the hospital at the monastery of Saint-Remy de Provence, Van Gogh's "Irises" really had a positive effect on the general psychological state of the artist. Vincent suffered from bipolar personality disorder, but the treatment at Saint-Remy seemed to really benefit him. In letters to his brother, the artist wrote that he was inspired by rural landscapes, young cheerful village women and flowers spread in lush flower beds throughout the hospital. A modern photo of the Saint-Remy de Provence hospital is presented below.

We also present to your attention Saint-Remy de Provence in the painting by Van Gogh. This work has become quite famous.

During the writing of "Irises" the artist felt that he could restrain bouts of illness during work. This awareness, probably, gave the picture such an irresistible feeling of a thirst for life and a craving for beauty. Unfortunately, this picture was not the starting point, but the final one - after it the plots became more intense and expressive, until they reached the highest intensity in the painting "Wheat Field with Crows", which became the last in the artist's life. "Irises" Van Gogh seemed to have created in the last fit of life-loving harmony, writing them a year before his death.

Also, the world saw such a work as "Wheat Field with Crows" (1890). You can see it below.

"Irises" Van Gogh - description of the painting

This canvas contains all the features characteristic of the painter's style: fast, curved strokes that give the painting the illusion of movement, life. All his landscapes have the feeling of a light breeze swaying trees, grass and flowers. It is the same in "Irises" - they seem to move, swayed by gusts of wind. There is also a mixture of genres of Japanese engraving and impressionism, so beloved by Van Gogh. But there is something that still distinguishes the picture from others: firstly, this is the angle - the artist seems to be lying on the ground, looking at the flowers in front of him, even slightly from the bottom up.

The horizon is not visible, and the center of the picture visually shifts to the right - here the bouquet of irises is most clearly and expressively spelled out, while on the left and in the depths the flowers are slightly blurred and distant. A cluster of irises on the right is balanced by a patch of bare, orange-hued earth on the left. Bright, cheerful irises covering the horizon allow the viewer to literally immerse themselves in the flower garden. Intense spots of violet-blue flowers are exquisitely combined with long, graceful bright green leaves (a clear reference to the decorative Japanese style).

Japanese engraving depicting irises conveys the beauty of these flowers.

Where is the original?

The canvas that Van Gogh sincerely loved - "Irises", has been exhibiting at the Getty Museum since 1990. This is one of the few paintings by the artist exhibited during his lifetime. Through the efforts of the artist's brother - Theo van Gogh - the painting was presented at the "Salon of Independent Artists" in Paris, in September 1889. A year after the death of the artist, in 1891, "Irises" was acquired by Octave Mirbaud, a French writer and connoisseur of art. His photo is presented below.

He bought it not alone, but together with another famous painting by Van Gogh - "Sunflowers". For two paintings he paid 600 francs.

In 1987, the original painting by Van Gogh "Irises" was sold at auction for a record amount at that time - $ 53.9 million. The buyer was businessman and crime boss Alan Bond, but he suddenly did not have enough money to complete the deal. The painting was withdrawn from the auction, and only in 1990 Van Gogh's "Irises" acquired the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

This museum was founded by oil tycoon Jean Paul Getty and to this day is the largest art museum on the entire West Coast of the United States. The original "Irises" by Van Gogh is the only painting by this artist presented in the museum.

Other Irises

"Irises" of 1889 is not the only painting by the artist depicting these beautiful spring flowers. A year earlier, he had written "Field of Irises near Arles." This painting is a classic Van Gogh-style landscape: a bright sky, a field, flowers, trees, and building tops in the distance. The painting is dominated by the painter's favorite yellow and blue colors. One gets the feeling that the irises are a fragment of this picture, but here the flowers are written more casually, they are just part of a larger landscape.

Two other paintings were painted later, in the year of the artist's death. Both depict bouquets of irises collected in vases. The first one is called - "Bouquet of irises". A huge bouquet of flowers on a bright yellow background is collected in a rustic clay pot. There are so many irises that several stems fell out of the pot onto the table. This painting still makes a good impression due to the brightness of the color and the old combination of Japonism and Impressionism. However, cut flowers do not give such a cheerful effect as those growing luxuriantly in a flower bed. Perhaps, with the irises that fell out of the vase, the artist wanted to emphasize his sad mood - he feels "dropped out" of society, superfluous, alien.

Another picture, although it repeats the name "Irises", but produces a completely opposite effect than the first and previous ones. This time there are not so many flowers, they fit well and do not fall out; the bouquet is placed in a white water jug. A clearly defined green tablecloth and a white wall that takes up most of the background make a depressing impression - they are associated with a hospital, non-residential premises. The flowers themselves are also not so bright and slightly dented - they seem to be already fading, a feeling of death emanates from them. The clear black contours of the stems and petals are expressively decorative, again hinting at Japanese art. The absence of bright colors, on the contrary, moves the picture away from impressionism. Perhaps the artist wanted to emphasize that even his favorite flowers had ceased to inspire him - now they are just part of a lifeless picture.

Artistic features of Van Gogh's work

To this day, Vincent van Gogh remains a controversial artist. Some hate him, others idolize him. But one cannot but admit that the freshness of his paintings, the originality of color and subjects make him one of the most influential and relevant in the modern world. "Irises" - one of the most striking paintings of the great Dutch painter. The uniqueness and originality of the artist is so expressive in it that even viewers who are far from impressionism and do not recognize the genius of "Starry Night" or colorful portraits and self-portraits will certainly be fascinated by it. It seemed to merge in it all the creative finds developed by Van Gogh during his career.

"Irises" by Van Gogh in the modern world

Nowadays, few people buy reproductions of famous paintings for interior decoration - dusty paintings in massive frames are suitable for museums, but not for modern housing. However, Van Gogh's work accompanies modern man in other ways, because his relevance is now more popular than ever. For example, Van Gogh's "Irises" was used as a print in the Yves Saint Laurent collection in 1989.

Other design solutions using the "Irises" plot are also relevant - they can become a reproduction on the entire wall or fold in the form of a mosaic of stained glass (for example, in a bath or in a kitchen). Or they can be used as prints on t-shirts, phone cases, earrings, bags and more. Many people know Van Gogh's Irises. The original in a museum or a reproduction on a T-shirt - it doesn't matter, the main thing is to touch the soul of a great artist.

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Van Gogh - Irises (Les Iris).

Year of creation: 1889

Canvas, oil.

Original size: 71×93cm

Getty Museum, Los Angeles

"Irises" (fr. Les Iris) - a painting by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. "Irises" were painted by the artist in 1889 - at a time when he lived in the hospital of St. Paul of Mausoleum near Saint-Remy-de-Provence, a year before his death.

There is no high tension in the picture, which manifests itself in his subsequent works. He called the painting "a lightning rod for my illness" because he felt he could keep his illness in check by continuing to paint. The painting shows the influence of Japanese ukiyo-e prints, as in other works by Van Gogh and some of his contemporaries. This similarity is manifested in the selection of the contours of objects, unusual angles, the presence of detailed areas and areas filled with a solid color that does not correspond to reality.

Description of the painting by Vincent van Gogh “Irises”

Van Gogh's painting "Irises" refers to the late period of his work. It was written during treatment in a psychiatric hospital in Saint-Remy. Reason has already left the brilliant artist, but in infrequent moments of enlightenment, he created new landscapes and still lifes, which entered the treasury of world painting.

The painting "Irises" differs from most of the works of Van Gogh in the absence of anxiety, anxiety. On the contrary, the canvas is filled with serenity and peace. There are no saturated shades here, the impression of translucency, watercolor image is created. Critics often note the similarity of "Irises" in the manner of execution with engravings by Japanese artists.

The painting depicts part of the garden - a flower bed with irises and a flowering bush in the background. The unusual angle is striking: the flowers seem to be seen through the eyes of a child or a person sitting on the ground. Irises cover almost the entire space, only the yellow-green grass in the upper corner hints at the continuation of the lawn. Orange-red earth tones echo the flowers in the upper left corner. A lone white iris on the left and a pale blue on the right balance the perception, creating symmetry.

The main idea that the artist sought to convey was freshness, color, expressiveness of colors. Irises are written in detail, the contours of the leaves are highlighted in black, small details are scrupulously drawn - all this gives a resemblance to Japanese engravings.

Van Gogh throughout his life tried to ensure that his paintings not only convey what he sees around him, but also what he feels at the same time, his perception of the world he depicts. "Irises" are filled with the desire to see the beauty of nature not from above, but by observing it, coming close, plunging inside, surrounding yourself with its multicolor and smells.