Irises
He made work a way of holding himself together. This is almost not a metaphor.
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F608 Irises 1889 -
F678 Irises (in vase) 1890 -
F680 Irises (pink background) 1890
Painting
The earliest canvas was painted in May 1889 — the first work after he was allowed to leave his room and walk into the walled garden. Violet irises crowd diagonally into the lower half of the frame, the leaves stand crossed like swords, the soil orange-red. A year later, back inside his room, he painted two more — vases of violet irises against yellow, then violet irises against pink, the colours pushed even purer. Set the three together: a slow displacement from "I can go outside" to "I can only stay in the room."
Letter
May 1889. He wrote to Theo: "I'm working on two others — bouquets of violet flowers against a yellow background, with an effect of terribly disparate complementary colours that reinforce each other by their opposition." Another letter: "The garden is full of violet irises." Soon after the disaster — the ear, the leaving of the Yellow House, the voluntary entry into an asylum — the first sentence he could write was about colour, not about himself.
Place
Saint-Paul Hospital, the walled garden. He had checked himself in voluntarily, days before; the first time they let him out of the ward, he set up an easel and painted what was nearest — irises. This was the opening week of the twelve months he would spend here, three weeks after the ear. The first thing he did with freedom inside a wall was look very hard at one flower.
He entered Saint-Paul in May 1889, and soon after admission began to paint the irises in the garden.
In his letters he repeatedly treated continued painting as a necessary means of holding himself together, of not falling into stagnation. The irises were the first evidence that he was still functioning.
Afterward he asked Theo to see whether a few of them were good enough for an exhibition. He kept tracking where his pictures went.
Events
- The Colour Experimenter · Letter 776
Within days he was allowed to step into the walled garden. The first thing he did was set up an easel before the irises — using painting to save himself
- The Translator · Letter 777
Completed the first Irises — flat violet-blue, sharp black contour, large empty space across the upper half. Japanese visual grammar transferred onto a Provençal flowerbed
- The Colour Experimenter · Letter 777
'The garden is full of violet irises.' Just after disaster, the first sentence he could write was about colour, not about himself
- Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 776
Admitted to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum. At first kept in a second-floor room, watching the irises in the garden through the iron window
- The Colour Experimenter · Letter 776
A year later, painted two more bouquets indoors — violet irises against yellow, against pink. 'Terribly disparate complementary colours that reinforce each other by their opposition.'
- Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 778
The three placed side by side trace the slow displacement from 'I can go outside' to 'I can only stay in the room'
From the Letters
Je travaille à deux autres — des bouquets de fleurs violettes sur fond jaune, avec un effet de couleurs complémentaires terriblement disparates qui se renforcent par leur opposition. I'm working on two others — bouquets of violet flowers against a yellow background, with an effect of terribly disparate complementary colours that reinforce each other by their opposition.
Le jardin est plein d'iris violets. The garden is full of violet irises.
Letter Sources
Van Gogh letter records referenced on this page, linked to the Van Gogh Letters Project. vangoghletters.org
Technique Evidence
This work appears as evidence in this site’s technique-evolution axis.