twelve sunflowers

Vase with 12 sunflowers, 1888, oil on canvas

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born in March 1853 and died in  July 1890) was a dutchpost impressionist  painter whose work, notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty and bold color, had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. After years of painful anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness, he died aged 37 from a gunshot wound, generally accepted to be self-inflicted (although no gun was ever found). His work was then known to only a handful of people and appreciated by fewer still. I picked this drawing because I love sunflowers. The colors are very warm.