Van Gogh Sunflowers: All 9 Versions, Where They Are, and Why They Are All Changing Colour

Last updated: May 2026 · By Stanislav Arnautov · Berlin

Vincent van Gogh (Zundert, 1853 – Auvers-sur-Oise, 1890) painted sunflowers across two distinct periods and three distinct compositional approaches: the Paris series of 1887 (cut sunflowers lying flat or in smaller vases), the Arles series of August 1888 (upright sunflowers in a yellow vase, the canonical versions), and the Saint-Rémy copies of January 1889 (exact repetitions of two Arles versions). The total number of Van Gogh sunflower paintings that form part of the recognised series is nine, though the specific count depends on which works scholars include in the series and which are classified as related still life works. DeckArts Berlin reproduces the Arles Sunflowers on Canadian maple from approximately $140 single to $310 triptych.

Nine Versions: The Complete Inventory

The nine works in the recognised Van Gogh Sunflowers series, in approximate chronological order:

Paris 1 (August–September 1887): Four cut sunflowers (two open, two bud/closing), oil on canvas, 60 × 100 cm. Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands. The first major sunflower painting: cut flowers lying flat on a surface rather than in a vase. Dark background. Part of Van Gogh's Paris period engagement with Impressionism and Japanese still life.

Paris 2 (August–September 1887): Two cut sunflowers, oil on canvas, 43.2 × 61 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Smaller format; two flowers rather than four.

Arles 1 (August 1888): Three sunflowers in a vase, oil on canvas, 73 × 58 cm. Destroyed in World War II (last held at the Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan; destroyed in the 1945 bombing of Ashiya). The only Van Gogh Sunflowers painting not to have survived.

Arles 2 (August 1888): Twelve sunflowers in a yellow vase, oil on canvas, 91 × 72 cm. Neue Pinakothek, Munich.

Arles 3 (August 1888): Fifteen sunflowers in a yellow vase on yellow background, oil on canvas, 92.1 × 73 cm. National Gallery, London. Sold Christie's London 30 March 1987 for £24.75 million (then world auction record). On loan to the National Gallery from the Yasuda collection.

Arles 4 (August 1888): Fifteen sunflowers in a yellow vase on turquoise background, oil on canvas, 100.5 × 76.5 cm. Sompo Japan Museum of Art (formerly Yasuda Kasai Museum), Tokyo. Sold Christie's London March 1987 for £22.9 million.

Arles 5 (August 1888): Twelve sunflowers in a vase on yellow background (different arrangement from Arles 2), oil on canvas, 92 × 72.5 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Saint-Rémy Copy 1 (January 1889): Fifteen sunflowers in a yellow vase on yellow background. Copy of Arles 3, oil on canvas, 92 × 72.5 cm. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Made at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole at Gauguin's request; described by Van Gogh as made with "simplifications."

Saint-Rémy Copy 2 (January 1889): Fifteen sunflowers on yellow-green background. Copy of Arles 4 variant, oil on canvas, 95 × 73 cm. National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Second Saint-Rémy copy.

The Paris Series (1887): The Foundation

The Paris Sunflowers (1887) are compositionally and chromatically distinct from the Arles Sunflowers: the Paris versions depict cut flowers — flowers that have been severed from the plant and are lying flat or in a small vase, in the process of wilting. The palette is darker (the Paris period's Impressionist-transitional palette: grey-brown backgrounds, the specific quality of cut flowers beginning to lose water). These are not the celebratory yellow-on-yellow decorations of the Arles period; they are close observations of the specific physiognomy of sunflowers at different stages of dying.

Van Gogh was interested in sunflowers as a subject during the Paris period partly because of their Japanese associations (the sunflower appears in Hiroshige's botanical prints as a summer emblem) and partly because of the specific visual drama of their dying: the large, complex flower head with its hundreds of individual florets changes dramatically as it opens, peaks, and declines. The Paris Sunflowers are studies in the visual vocabulary of a specific plant at specific moments of its life cycle.

The Arles Series (August 1888): The Canonical Five

The five Arles Sunflowers (August 1888) are compositionally and emotionally completely different from the Paris series: they depict upright, living, fully open sunflowers in yellow ceramic vases, against warm yellow backgrounds, in the specific quality of the Provençal summer sun at full intensity. The palette is entirely warm-dominant: chrome yellow, chrome orange, raw sienna, and the specific cadmium yellow of the flower centres — no cool complement, no dark ground, no suggestion of decay. The Arles Sunflowers are celebrations of solar warmth, of the Provençal summer, and of Van Gogh's specific happiness at the Yellow House during the period of Gauguin's anticipated arrival.

The specific compositional innovation of the Arles Sunflowers: placing the flowers in a yellow vase against a yellow background removes all chromatic contrast from the composition and forces the visual differentiation between flowers, vase, and background to be achieved entirely through tonal variation within the yellow spectrum. The viewer's eye must navigate between different yellows rather than between a yellow object and a contrasting background. This is a specific technical challenge that Van Gogh set himself deliberately — and it is the chromatic achievement that makes the Arles Sunflowers technically unlike any other major still life in the Western tradition.

The Saint-Rémy Copies (January 1889): For Gauguin

Van Gogh made two exact copies of the Arles Sunflowers at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in January 1889, during a relatively stable period between psychotic episodes. He wrote to Theo (Letter 736): "Gauguin has written to me and is interested in the bedroom picture and the two Sunflowers studies. He's asked me to give them to him but I've told him that I would rather he chose from what he sees as mine when he comes to Paris." The copies were made to fulfill Gauguin's interest in the Sunflowers while preserving the originals — Van Gogh sent the copies to Theo for eventual transfer to Gauguin.

Gauguin received one of the copies and kept it for many years; it is now in the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam (Saint-Rémy Copy 1). The relationship between Gauguin and the Sunflowers thus extends from the Yellow House commission (Arles, October 1888) through the Saint-Rémy copies (January 1889) to the eventual transfer of a copy to Gauguin's possession — a three-part transaction spanning the most turbulent period of Van Gogh's career.

Van Gogh on the Sunflowers: What the Letters Say

Van Gogh wrote extensively about the Sunflowers in letters to Theo and to Gauguin. Key statements:

Letter 686 (to Theo, August 1888): "I am now going all out at the decorations for the studio. I also want to make a decoration for Gauguin's room, twelve canvases on a yellow theme — a scheme of colour that will cover the whole room."

Letter 683 (to Theo, August 1888): "I'm painting with the gusto of a Marseillais eating bouillabaisse, which won't surprise you when it's a question of painting large sunflowers. If I go on executing them this way, there'll soon be a dozen panels of them."

Letter 695 (to Theo, October 1888, on Gauguin's arrival and response): "Gauguin was telling me the other day that he'd seen a painting by Claude Monet of sunflowers in a large Japanese vase, very fine, but — he likes mine better."

The letters reveal Van Gogh's sustained engagement with the Sunflowers not merely as still life subjects but as decorative programmes: he was planning a room covered with sunflower paintings, a total warm environment that would welcome Gauguin to the Yellow House. The Arles Sunflowers are hospitality art on the scale of a room programme.

Gauguin's Response: The Portrait of Van Gogh Painting

Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) painted a portrait of Van Gogh painting sunflowers during their shared residence at the Yellow House: Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers (November 1888, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam, 73 × 91 cm). Gauguin depicted Van Gogh from behind and to the side, showing him at the easel with a palette and brush, the sunflower canvas in front of him. Van Gogh's response to the portrait, reported in a letter to Theo: "My face has definitely been done and it's me, I'm sure, but there's something, some quality in it that's gone away with the fever that comes from painting."

The Gauguin portrait is the only contemporary depiction of Van Gogh actively painting. It is therefore one of the most historically significant images in the entire Van Gogh biographical record: the only image of Van Gogh at work, made by the most significant artist of their brief Yellow House partnership, depicting him in the act of making the works that are now among the most celebrated in the history of art.

The Chrome Yellow Problem: Why All Nine Are Changing Colour

All nine Sunflowers versions use chrome yellow (lead chromate, PbCrO₄) as the primary pigment for the flower petals, the vase, and the background in the Arles versions. Chrome yellow is chemically unstable under certain conditions — it undergoes photochemical reduction that converts the original brilliant orange-yellow to a brownish-yellow or greenish-yellow — and the conversion is progressive, continuing over time under indoor light exposure.

Technical analyses by the National Gallery London (Version 3), the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam (Saint-Rémy Copy 1), the Neue Pinakothek Munich (Arles 2), and other institutions have all documented areas of chrome yellow conversion in their respective versions. The specific areas most affected: the outer petals of some flowers, which have darkened from the brilliant chrome yellow of the 1888 original to a more muted warm brown-yellow. The paintings' iconic bright yellow — as seen in photographs from the 1880s and early 1890s — has diminished in some areas.

The DeckArts Sunflowers reproduction reproduces the estimated 1888 colour state — the brilliant chrome yellow as Van Gogh applied it — rather than the current faded state of the museum originals. This is a specific advantage of a high-quality reproduction: it can represent the work as made, not as it currently appears after 138 years of photochemical alteration.

Which Version Does DeckArts Reproduce?

The DeckArts Sunflowers reproduction is based on the National Gallery London version (Arles 3, August 1888, 92.1 × 73 cm) — the most celebrated, most reproduced, and most widely recognised of the nine versions. Arles 3 depicts fifteen sunflowers in a yellow vase on a pure yellow background, the most chromatic and the most compositionally resolved of the five Arles versions. The National Gallery version is the standard visual reference for "Van Gogh's Sunflowers" in popular culture, in art history, and in interior design publications.

DeckArts

Van Gogh — Sunflowers Triptych (~$310)

Based on National Gallery London version (Arles 3, August 1888). 9 versions in total. Chrome yellow at 1888 colour state. Deep navy wall, warm LED 2700K. From ~$310 triptych on Canadian maple.

View this piece →

FAQ

How many versions of Van Gogh's Sunflowers are there?

Nine recognised versions in two distinct series plus copies: two Paris versions (1887, cut sunflowers); five Arles versions (August 1888, upright in yellow vase — the canonical series); two Saint-Rémy copies (January 1889, made for Gauguin). The Arles 1 version was destroyed in WWII bombing in Japan (1945) — the only Van Gogh Sunflowers painting not to have survived. The most celebrated version (Arles 3) is at the National Gallery London, sold for £24.75M in 1987. DeckArts from ~$140.

Where are Van Gogh's Sunflowers paintings?

Nine versions: Paris 1 — Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; Paris 2 — Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Arles 1 — destroyed 1945; Arles 2 — Neue Pinakothek, Munich; Arles 3 — National Gallery, London (on loan from Yasuda collection); Arles 4 — Sompo Japan Museum of Art, Tokyo; Arles 5 — Philadelphia Museum of Art; Saint-Rémy Copy 1 — Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; Saint-Rémy Copy 2 — National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. DeckArts from ~$140.

Article Summary

Van Gogh Sunflowers: 9 versions in 3 groups. Paris series (1887): 2 versions, cut flowers lying flat/in small vase, darker palette, Paris Impressionist-transitional period; Paris 1 Kröller-Müller Otterlo, Paris 2 Met New York. Arles series (August 1888): 5 versions, upright in yellow vase, warm-dominant single-hue yellow, painted for Gauguin's room (Letter 686: "twelve canvases on yellow theme"); Arles 1 destroyed 1945 (WWII bombing Japan), Arles 2 Neue Pinakothek Munich, Arles 3 National Gallery London (£24.75M Christie's 30 March 1987), Arles 4 Sompo Japan Tokyo (£22.9M Christie's 1987), Arles 5 Philadelphia. Saint-Rémy copies (January 1889): 2 exact copies of Arles 3 and Arles 4 variant; made for Gauguin (Letter 736); Copy 1 Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam, Copy 2 National Museum of Western Art Tokyo. Chrome yellow instability: all 9 versions have documented conversion in some areas; DeckArts reproduces 1888 estimated colour state. Gauguin portrait of Van Gogh painting sunflowers (November 1888, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam) = only contemporary depiction of Van Gogh at work. DeckArts based on Arles 3 (National Gallery London). From ~$140 single / ~$310 triptych. Canadian maple. UV archival 100+ years. Berlin. 30-day return.

About the Author

Stanislav Arnautov is the founder of DeckArts and a creative director from Ukraine based in Berlin.