Imã Vase with Gladioli and Chinese Asters by Van Gogh

Vase with Gladioli and Chinese Asters by Vincent Van Gogh, oil on canvas 1886, is a still life painting of red, yellow and white gladiola flowers with pink-violet china asters in a black and white decorative flower vase. Painted the year that Van Gogh moved to France, the painting shows the influence of Impressionism with its vivid, contrasting colors and cool, blue shadows. Van Gogh extends the lessons of the Impressionists with the thickly applied, impasto oil colors that appeared worked with brush and painting knife for a vivid, tactile surface of moving color and form. Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890) was a Dutch painter of the Post-Impressionist movement known for bold, expressive drawing, swirling brushstrokes and intense, heightened colors. In early adulthood Van Gogh worked as an art dealer, teacher and pastor before taking up the full time study of drawing and painting in his late twenties. Influenced by Rembrandt, the 19th century Realists and Barbizon school, Van Gogh’s early paintings featured studies of workers and peasants in somber earth tones. Moving to France in 1886, Van Gogh met with the startling innovations of the Impressionist painters and began to apply their approach to color and subject matter, which continued into the mature style for which the artist is most renowned. Van Gogh produced many hundreds of drawings and paintings including portraits, landscapes, still life and flower paintings, and numerous self-portraits that became a dominating influence on the modern art of the 20th century and made him one of the most popular artists of all time.