Vincent van Gogh | Irises, 1890

In May 1890, just before he checked himself out of the asylum at Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh painted four exuberant bouquets of spring flowers, the only still lifes of any ambition he had undertaken during his yearlong stay: two of irises, two of roses, in contrasting color schemes and formats.

In the Museum’s Irises he sought a “harmonious and soft” effect by placing the “violet” flowers against a “pink background”, which have since faded owing to his use of fugitive red pigments.

Vincent van Gogh | Irises, 1890 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Another work from this series, Roses (1993.400.5), hangs in the adjacent gallery.

Both were owned by the artist’s mother until her death in 1907. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vincent van Gogh | Irises, 1890 | Van Gogh Museum

Van Gogh painted this still life in the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy.

For him, the painting was mainly a study in colour.

He set out to achieve a powerful colour contrast.

Vincent van Gogh | Irises, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, May 1890 | Van Gogh Museum

By placing the purple flowers against a yellow background, he made the decorative forms stand out even more strongly.

The irises were originally purple.

But as the red pigment has faded, they have turned blue.

Van Gogh made two paintings of this bouquet.

In the other still life, he contrasted purple and pink with green. | © Van Gogh Museum

Vincent van Gogh | Still Life: Vase with Pink Roses, 1890 | National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

On the eve of his departure from the asylum in Saint-Rémy in May 1890, Van Gogh painted an exceptional group of four still lifes, to which both The Met's Roses and Irises belong.

These bouquets and their counterparts - an upright composition of irises (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam) and a horizontal composition of roses (National Gallery of Art, Washington) - were conceived as a series or ensemble.

Traces of pink along the tabletop and rose petals in the present painting, which have faded over time, offer a faint reminder of the formerly more vivid "canvas of pink roses against a yellow-green background in a green vase".

This painting was seized by the Nazis from Georg Simon Hirschland (1885-1942) in Essen in 1939, following Hirschland's emigration to the United States in 1938.

It was restituted to his heirs in New York in 1950. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.