Artwork · 19th century · Vincent van Gogh

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Roses

Vincent van Gogh1890Oil on canvas93 × 74 cm

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At a glance

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A green vase overflows with white roses, and a few blossoms have dropped onto the table.
Vincent van Gogh painted it in May 1890, near the end of his year at the asylum in Saint-Rémy.
The roses look white today, but they were painted pink. The picture has been quietly changing color for more than a century.

Reading the picture

4 places to look closer

Tap a number on the painting to jump to its note, or a close-up to see that spot in the whole picture.

Zoom in on a rose near the top. Van Gogh built the petals out of thick cream-colored paint, then drew wavy blue lines over them to separate one fold from the next. The paint is so heavy that each petal stands up as if you could touch it.
Look just below and to the right. A closed bud is painted a rusty orange-brown, wrapped in dark green. Among all those white blossoms, this small spot of warm color catches your eye.
Drop down to the vase. It is outlined in dark blue, and inside, green strokes wrap around it in curves. Because the brushwork follows the swell of the vase, you can feel its round body. The wall is green and the vase is green too, but the vase is darker, so it steps forward.
Now the table to the right of the vase. A fallen rose lies there among loose green leaves. Each leaf is a single flick of the brush, and the rose is a little whirl of white paint. A blue line runs across where the wall meets the table.

When it was painted

In May 1890 Van Gogh, thirty-seven, was spending his last days at the asylum in Saint-Rémy. He had checked himself in a year earlier, after a breakdown in Arles. He was just coming out of a long attack that had begun in late winter. Meanwhile his brother Theo had arranged a move to Auvers-sur-Oise, a village near Paris.

Before he left, he painted four big bouquets, two of roses and two of irises. He paired them in contrasts: upright against horizontal, one background color against another.

In a letter written just before his departure, he said he had just finished pink roses in a green vase against a yellow-green background. The Met identifies that canvas as this one.

On May 16 he walked out of the asylum. In Paris he met Theo's wife, Johanna, for the first time, along with their baby son, born that January and named Vincent after him. A few days later he went on to Auvers. He died there in July.

The painting stayed with the artist's mother until 1907. In 1908 Johanna sold it to the Berlin dealer Paul Cassirer. The American collectors Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg owned it from 1978. They gave it to the Met in 1993, and the gift was completed with Walter's bequest in 2002.

Now look closely at the roses along the left edge. Between the white petals, a few strokes of salmon pink still cling on. That is what is left of the pink Van Gogh wrote about.

The painter

Vincent van Gogh

1853–1890

When painting this, the artist was about 37 years old

All paintings by Vincent van Gogh →

More by the same painter

Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat (obverse: The Potato Peeler)1887

Madame Roulin and Her Baby1888

Oleanders1888

Questions to think about

Look for itAmong all the white flowers, can you spot the bud that is a different color?
Why?Why do you think Van Gogh painted the fallen flowers on the table, not just the full bouquet?
What about you?Van Gogh painted flowers just before a big move. When you are about to start something new, what do you do to settle your mind?

Same period