Vincent van Gogh began experimenting with color in his still life flower series.
By the summer of 1885, the artist created some 40 paintings with a traditional approach, meaning that the flowers were in a vase and placed in the center of the canvas.
His 1886 painting Small Bottle with Peonies and Blue Delphiniums, done with oil on painter's board -a cheaper material than canvas-, from the Gemeente Museum collection, is one of them.
Flowers became the subject of many of the artist's works during this period.
But after painting over 10 species in mid-September, he sought out other subjects including fruit, shoes, fish and budding flower bulbs.
Vincent van Gogh | Small bottle with peonies and blue delphiniums, 1886 | Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam