Van Gogh's flowers

Vincent van Gogh was a flower fan!

It all began in Paris, where he lived for two years (1886-88).

During his time there, he noticed that flower still lifes sold well.

Some French artists even specialised in painting flower still lifes.

Van Gogh started painting flower still lifes in the hope they would sell well.

Vincent van Gogh | Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase, 1890 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rembrandt van Rijn | Woman with a Pink, early 1660

Her forehead crisscrossed with jewels, the sitter of this portrait displays a pink, or carnation, a symbol of love and marriage.

The gilt picture frame visible in the background locates her in a luxurious interior, but her pensive expression elevates the portrait beyond a mere statement of status.

If scholars are correct in identifying the sitter in the pendant portrait hanging next to this one as auctioneer Pieter Haringh, then the woman who appears here must be his wife, Elisabeth Delft. | Source: © Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rembrandt | Woman with a Pink, early 1660s | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Eastman Johnson | Co-founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Eastman Johnson (1824-1906) was an American painter and Co-Founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, with his name inscribed at its entrance.

Best known for his Genre paintings, paintings of scenes from everyday life, and his portraits both of everyday people, he also painted portraits of prominent Americans such as Abraham Lincoln, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

His later works often show the influence of the 17th-century Dutch masters whom he studied while living in The Hague, and he was even known as The American Rembrandt in his day.

5 Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy.

The Museum lives in two iconic sites in New York City - The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters.

Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online.

Since its founding in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects.

Every day, art comes alive in the Museum's galleries and through its exhibitions and events, revealing new ideas and unexpected connections across time and across cultures.

Guido Reni | The Immaculate Conception, 1627

Guido Reni (Bologna, 1575-1642), during his lifetime the most celebrated living painter in Italy, was famous for the elegance of his compositions and the beauty and grace of his heads, earning him the epithet "Divine".

This altarpiece, with its otherworldly space shaped by clouds and putti in a high-keyed palette, was commissioned in about 1627 by the Spanish ambassador in Rome for the infanta of Spain.

It later hung in the cathedral of Seville, where it deeply influenced Spanish painters, especially Bartolomé Estebán Murillo, whose workshop produced many iterations of this subject.

The Immaculate Conception became a symbol of the universality of the Catholic Church and was used for the conversion of populations across Spain’s global empire. | Source: © Metropolitan Museum of Art

Guido Reni (Italian, 1575-1642) | The Immaculate Conception, 1627 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Egyptian blue | The first synthetic pigment in history

Egyptian blue, also known as calcium copper silicate (calcium copper tetrasilicate) or cuprorivaite, is a pigment that was used in ancient Egypt for thousands of years.

It is considered to be the first synthetic pigment.

It was known to the Romans by the name caeruleum.

After the Roman era, Egyptian blue fell from use and, thereafter, the manner of its creation was forgotten.

In modern times, scientists have been able to analyze its chemistry and reconstruct how to make it.

Tomb of Amunherkhepshef, son of Pharaoh Ramesses III

Joaquín Sorolla to Clotilde: “You are my flesh, my life and my brain”..

Clotilde García Castillo (1865-1929) married Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (Spanish Realist/Impressionist painter, 1863-1923) at the age of 23 and they ended their days together.

The painter died six years before her, in 1923.

Clotilde donated all her assets to the State for the foundation of a museum in honour of her husband's work - the family home where the Sorolla Museum stands today.

Joaquín Sorolla | Clotilde seated on the Sofa (Clotilde sentada en un sofá), 1910 | Museo Sorolla, Madrid

Of all the portraits Sorolla painted of his wife, this is probably the most successful and is a fundamental work within the context of his artistic production.

The viewer is presented here with a refined lady, reflecting her social status and so mirroring her husband’s professional success.

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida | Clotilde seated on the Sofa, 1910 | Museo Sorolla

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | The Bay of Naples, 1881

The corner of the balcony visible at lower left in this composition indicates Renoir’s vantage point overlooking the bay of Naples.

His position afforded an iconic view of the harbor with the volcano Mount Vesuvius in the background, wafting smoke into the sky.

Inspired by the southern Italian light, Renoir painted another version of this vista at a different time of day (The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass.).

James Duncan, a wealthy sugar refiner, purchased the present work in 1883, making it the first Impressionist picture acquired by a Scottish collector.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | The Bay of Naples, 1881 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mao Zedong | Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom! / Lascia che mille fiori sboccino!

The Hundred Flowers Campaign, also termed the Hundred Flowers Movement (Chinese: 百花齐放), was a period from 1956-1957 in the People's Republic of China during which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) encouraged citizens to openly express their opinions of the Communist Party.

Following the failure of the campaign, CCP Chairman Mao Zedong conducted an ideological crackdown on those who criticized the party, which continued through 1959.

During the campaign, differing views and solutions to national policy were encouraged based on the famous expression by Mao:

"The policy of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend is designed to promote the flourishing of the arts and the progress of science".

Anselm Kiefer | Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom, 2000 | Metropolitan Museum of Art