![Vincent Van Gogh - Sunflowers [1888 or 1889] by Gandalf's Gallery](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7301/8993664971_39d74119ea.jpg)
While he waited for Paul Gauguin to join him in the Provençal city of Arles in 1888, Vincent van Gogh painted five audaciously decorative still lifes of sunflowers in simple earthenware jugs. At least two of these canvases decorated Gauguin's bedroom when he reached the city late in October, and the French painter came to admire them greatly. Always defensive about the tragic outcome of his stay, it ended with Van Gogh's self-mutilation and madness, Gauguin later claimed that the sunflower paintings directly reflected his own good advice, generously offered in Arles, that his Dutch friend avoid monotony by adding "bugle notes" of brilliant colour to his paintings.
[Philadelphia Museum of Art - Oil on canvas, 92.4 x 71.1 cm]