Claude Monet’s Bouquet Of Sunflowers And Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers: A Comparative Analysis

Introduction

Claude Monet’s Bouquet of Sunflowers is an oil on canvas, portrait painting. The dimensions of the painting are 101 x 81.3 cm. Currently, Bouquet of Sunflowers is on view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 819. Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers is also an oil on canvas, portrait painting. Its dimensions are 95 x 73 cm and is considered one of his most famous paintings. This painting is currently in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Subject Matter and Description

Both Monet’s and Van Gogh’s paintings have sunflowers as the subject matter, but they portray different aspects of these flowers. Monet’s still life depicts freshly picked flowers in a large, Japanese vase on top of a red, perhaps plaid, tablecloth, in front of a mostly gray wall. These sunflowers grew along the pathway to his garden at Vétheuil (Bouquet of Sunflowers). They’re bright and lively, in the peak of their beauty. Van Gogh’s sunflowers on the other hand, were wilted. They are withered; past their prime, but Van Gogh found them beautiful. His vision allowed him to see the beauty of these dying flowers, just as it allowed him to see the beauty of weathered faces (The Painter of Sunflowers).

Visual Elements (of Art)

In Monet’s work, the usage of color brings out the brightness of the sunflowers. With most of the background being gray, he manages to create contrast between the wall and the bright golden sunflowers and its vase. Though the green leaves and stems of the sunflowers are considerably more vivid than the gray background, it still contrasts the warm color of the petals with its cooler undertone. Monet’s painting brings out the brightness of the flowers by using complementary colors; the green of the leaves against the red of the tablecloth, and the pale orange and blue of the wall, neutralize themselves with the gray tone, leaving the golden yellow flowers to stand out. For Van Gogh’s painting, he uses mainly hues of yellow with a streak of blue and black. Even the green of the stems has a yellow undertone. This lack of color brings out the withering flowers even more; but instead of the petals, your attention is on the golden-brown centers of the flowers. The lines in Bouquet of Sunflowers are loose, and they blend into each other, creating implied lines instead of strong contour lines, which Van Gogh does in Sunflowers. There are strong lines that outline the sunflowers and vase from the background, it was something to prevent them from melting with it, perhaps make up for the lack of color. The hazy lines of Monet’s portrait create a more naturalistic sensation to the overall painting, whereas Van Gogh’s is more stylistic. Sunflowers also has an actual texture, with the sunflowers’ pistils looking prickly due to the thick paint strokes used to paint them. Monet’s sunflowers appear to have a velvety texture, and the vase appears to be smooth. The red, tablecloth is painted in a way that it appears to be made of wool.

Composition and the Principles of Design

To achieve emphasis to the paintings, Monet and Van Gogh used different methods. Monet uses colors to create the focal point; colors of the background cannot compete with the brightness of the sunflowers. The other hues of color are used to support the flowers, allowing them to catch your eyes instantly. Though Van Gogh does use the lack of color to add emphasis, he also uses contour lines to pull the yellow petals out from the background. The contrasts within each painting also adds onto the visual interest. The sunflowers’ pistils pop out from the smoother background and petals in Van Gogh’s while the warm yellow flowers jump out form the relatively neutral and cooler elements. There is also a sense of balance in Van Gogh’s painting, with three petal-less pistils on the top and bottom of the painting, and the four flowers on the right and left sides. The two groups of pistils form triangles. The Bouquet of Sunflowers creates balance through the larger sunflowers that spread out towards the empty space of the wall, free from the green leaves.

Styles

Monet’s Bouquet of Sunflowers is a part of the Impressionism movement. It was a movement where the artists strived to capture the fleeting sensations of a scene, or the impression objects made when someone glances at it. Impressionists moved out from studios to the outdoors. The brushwork during this period was looser and the color palettes lightened to include intense colors. They avoided distinguishing the important elements of a picture and tossed linear perspective to the side in favor for emotional impact within their works. It was a more naturalistic movement, though they didn’t always rely on realistic depictions (Impressionism Movement Overview). Van Gogh was a part of Post-Impressionism. This movement was for expressing emotions versus optical impressions. These artists concentrated on themes of deeper symbolism, using simplified colors and more definitive forms. Another characteristic of this era was its renewed aesthetic sense and abstract tendencies (Post Impressionism). Both artistic movements arose in late 19th-century France. Impressionism had been created through the rejection towards the state-controlled academies and salons in favor for independent exhibitions. Post-Impressionism was the reaction against Impressionism, rejecting the spontaneous and “naturalistic rendering of light and color” in favor for symbolic content and formal order (Impressionism and Post-Impressionism).

Conclusion

These portraits of sunflowers deserve to be seen under different evaluation theories. Monet’s should be evaluated formally, while Van Gogh’s should be evaluated expressively. Monet was a founder of the French impressionism. The movement’s philosophy was to “express one’s perceptions before nature,” or to be able to capture the sensory effects within a moment in time. Though they didn’t necessarily rely on realistic depictions, Impressionists wanted to convey the passage of time; the subtle changes in the weather or the shifts in the atmosphere. Bouquet of Sunflowers is a portrayal of Monet’s techniques and skills in creating a sensory effect to show off the beauty of the flowers, so it is appropriate to use the skill-reliant evaluation theory to judge it. Van Gogh’s Sunflowers were something that had meaning to the artist. They were created as an expression of his gratitude, and they became something deeply associated with Van Gogh. He intended to make art to provide solace, comfort in a time of distress or sadness, to troubled hearts. For Van Gogh’s works, his emotions are something that must be put into consideration for his works, as the reason he even started to paint was to free himself from his mental suffering. Without his emotional state, Van Gogh’s art may have not existed in the first place, so using an evaluation that is artist-centered is the best way to evaluate Sunflowers.