Van Gogh Sunflowers Journal — Vase with Twelve Sunflowers 1888 Arlés

In August 1888, Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo from Arlés: "I am working with the enthusiasm of a Marseillais eating bouillabaisse, which won't surprise you when it's a question of painting sunflowers." He was working fast — in the heat of the Provençal summer, with the urgency of a man who knew that Paul Gauguin's arrival was imminent — and the painting he produced in those weeks, Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, stands apart: a canvas of extraordinary technical ambition, in which Van Gogh pushed his handling of cadmium yellow to its limits, documented the complete life cycle of the sunflower from tight bud to drooping seed head, and produced what many consider the most fully realised of all his flower paintings. It was painted to hang in the room he had prepared for Gauguin — a gesture of friendship that would outlast the friendship it celebrated by more than a century.

The front cover carries Vase with Twelve Sunflowers (Neue Pinakothek, Munich / Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1888–1889) in the full luminosity of its cadmium yellow palette — twelve sunflowers in varying stages of bloom, from tight bud to full flower to seed head, each rendered with the expressive impasto brushwork that makes Van Gogh's sunflowers unlike any other flower painting in the history of art. The back cover presents a contemporary negative interpretation of Van Gogh's final sunflower sketch (c. 1890, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam) — white lines on a turquoise ground drawn from Van Gogh's own palette, transforming the intimate pencil drawing into a graphic composition of striking modernity. Together, the two covers offer a complete portrait of Van Gogh's relationship with the sunflower: the celebrated oil painting in all its golden abundance, and the quiet, essential sketch that shows the artist's hand at its most direct.

Product Details

• Format: Hardcover lined journal
• Pages: 150 perforated lined pages (75 sheets) for easy removal
• Binding: Casewrap sewn binding — lays flat, flexible for comfortable writing
• Dimensions: 5.5 × 8.5 inches
• Weight: Approximately 400g
• Cover: Matte laminated full-wrap print

Perfect For

• Van Gogh admirers and Post-Impressionism enthusiasts
• Art historians and students of 19th-century French and Dutch painting
• Travellers to Munich, Philadelphia, or Amsterdam visiting Van Gogh's sunflowers in person
• Sunflower lovers and nature journalers drawn to the beauty of impermanence
• Writers and artists inspired by the power of friendship and the life-giving force of the sun
• A distinctive gift for anyone captivated by Van Gogh's life, vision, and the Yellow House in Arlés

The Story Behind the Painting

Cadmium yellow, the life cycle of the sunflower, the impasto technique, and the final sketch of 1890 — the full story of Vase with Twelve Sunflowers and what Van Gogh was really painting when he painted sunflowers — read it on our blog →