1886-1887 · Paris · Knot of Intention

The Paris Flower Studies

In Paris he used flowers to learn colour — and what actually happened in Theo's apartment over those two years, few have ever spoken of.

F243 Still Life with Meadow Flowers and Roses 1886
F286 Vase of Flowers 1886
F324 Still life: vase with cornflowers and poppies 1887
F375 Still life: sunflowers 1887
F218 Glass with Yellow Roses 1886
F213 Still life with fritillaries 1886

The Colour Experimenter

The Paris flowers were where the colour experimenter actually began. The talent had been dormant in the Dutch period — he had used earth tones for weavers and peasants, believing dark colour was "truer." That broke in his first week in Paris. The thirty still lifes were thirty controlled-variable experiments: flower shape was constant (reference), brush and colour rule were variables. This is a scientist's working method, not an artist's inspiration. The Arles sunflowers' decorative scheme, the Night Café's red-and-green, the Rhône's ultramarine — all those later "colour engineerings" were learned here, in the flowers.

The Translator

He faced four new languages in Paris at once: Impressionist diffused light, neo-impressionist dots, Japanese print flatness, and Rubens's flesh-and-silk red. He did not choose one. He tried to translate all four. To Theo he wrote: "I have to learn to speak these languages all at the same time." The flower studies were the practice ground — one bouquet under Impressionist brushwork, the next under pointillist dots, the next under the flat composition of a Japanese print. The translator's talent was upgraded here from "translation between cultures" (the early Millet copies) to "translation between aesthetic systems."

Painting

Spring 1886 to autumn 1887, more than thirty still lifes. Poppies, cornflowers, roses, gladioli, sunflowers gone to seed. The same bouquet painted again and again, each time with a different brush logic, a different colour rule. This is not "the Paris flower series" — it is thirty small experiments. The same poppy is dark red, earth brown, green leaf in the first canvas; by the twentieth it is vermilion, orange and bright yellow, the background gone from earth tone to neo-impressionist blue-violet dots. The flowers were a controllable sample — cheap, easy to come by, and they did not move. Where the shape stayed the same, the colour was rebuilt every time.

Letter

When he moved into Theo's flat, the Antwerp darkness had not yet faded. Within the first week he was painting flowers. To Theo he wrote of paint: cobalt blue, vermilion, chrome yellow, zinc white — a new pigment list. To his sister Wil: "I painted a great many flowers, trying hard to make the red really red, and the blue really blue." There is no poetry in that sentence. It is engineering language. He was not writing aesthetics; he was logging an experiment.

Place

Paris, 54 rue Lepic in Montmartre at Theo's apartment, Cormon's atelier, the Seine bank at Asnières. He visited père Tanguy's paint shop, ran in and out of Bernard's, Lautrec's, Signac's circles. In summer 1887 he painted en plein air with Signac at Asnières, carrying the colour rules he had learned from the flower studies out into landscape. Two years in Paris produced no single monument — but the optic nerve had been thoroughly rewired. When he left for Arles in February 1888, he was working in another colour system altogether.

The Colour Experimenter

The Translator

before

He went to Paris carrying the dark tones of Nuenen and the prints of Antwerp, squeezing in to live with Theo. He knew newer kinds of pictures were here, but his eye had not yet caught up.

now

He experimented with flower still lifes — buying cheap bouquets again and again, changing the colours, changing the brushwork. Back in the Nuenen years (letter 528, to Van Rappard, August 1885) he had already written that he kept doing the things he could not yet do, in order to learn them. In Paris, that sentence became an experiment carried out on bouquets.

after

He painted dozens; Theo's apartment grew smaller and smaller. Of how the two brothers actually lived together over those two years, almost no first-hand account remains.

Events

1886-03 The Colour Experimenter
Arrived from Antwerp, moved into Theo's flat. Within the first week he was painting flower still lifes — flowers were cheap, easy to come by, and a controllable sample of colour
1886-06 The Translator
Brief study at Cormon's atelier, where he met Bernard and Lautrec. The Antwerp darkness began to be dispersed by Impressionism within a week — he did not resist, he translated
1886-08 The Colour Experimenter
Summer: concentrated flower studies — poppies, cornflowers, roses, sunflowers (the earlier Paris versions). The same bouquet painted again and again, each time under a different brush logic or colour rule
1887-08 The Colour Experimenter
Signac visited; the two discussed neo-impressionist colour theory. Vincent painted en plein air with Signac at Asnières — carrying the colour rules learned in the flower studies into landscape
1887-10 Synaesthetic Precision
30+ flower still lifes by the end of his time in Paris. No single monument here — the optic nerve had been thoroughly rewired. By the time he left for Arles, he was working in a different colour system
1887-summer The Colour Experimenter
F375 and F376, Sunflowers Gone to Seed — before the upright Arles sunflowers, the bowed-head moment

Letter Sources

Van Gogh letter records referenced on this page, linked to the Van Gogh Letters Project. vangoghletters.org

Essays

Long-form reading connected to this node.

Time, the Collaborator The violet ink of Montmajour has faded almost to nothing, the blue Paris paper has turned a dirty yellow, the pink of the peach blossoms has evaporated into white specks. A hundred and thirty years of light and oxidation keep rewriting these drawings — and some of the rewriting, strangely, lets us see his working method for the first time. Open essay