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Irises

Vincent van Gogh · Post-Impressionism & Neo-Impressionism

Artist: Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)
Date: 1889
Dimensions: 74.3 x 94.3 cm
Medium: Oil on canvas
Location: J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, United States

Irises shows a dense bed of blue-violet irises in the garden of the asylum at Saint-Rémy, where Van Gogh had just arrived in May 1889. It was one of the first paintings he made there, and he called it “the lightning conductor for my illness”.

A closer look

The flowers are seen from close up, filling the canvas with twisting leaves and curling petals, outlined in dark contours like the Japanese prints Van Gogh admired. Among the crowd of blue blossoms, a single white iris stands out on the left, often read as a symbol of individuality or loneliness. The background of orange earth and other flowers is barely suggested. The painting was shown at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris in 1889, together with Starry Night Over the Rhône.

History of the painting

The buyer at the record auction of 1987 was the Australian businessman Alan Bond, but Sotheby's had lent him about half the price, and he was unable to pay off the debt. The painting could not be resold publicly for that sum, and in 1990 the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles bought it privately for an undisclosed price; it has hung there ever since and is one of the museum's most popular works.

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