Van Gogh Museum Journal 1999

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Appendix
Van Gogh's Sunflowers

This appendix supplies information on all of Van Gogh's sunflower paintings: basic data, letter references, provenance, reproductions, etc. Only the ‘early’ exhibitions (i.e. before the publication of De la Faille's catalogue raisonné in 1928) are given, with no pretension of completeness and with only those exhibitions noted where we can be certain which pictures were shown, particularly those documented in the loan lists. These are kept in the archive of the Van Gogh Museum (Vincent van Gogh Foundation). The works are catalogued in chronological order. For orientation, a toile de 30 ideally measures 92 × 73 cm. Titles are derived from the correspondence and have been slightly systematised.

Paris 1887

Sunflowers
Oil on canvas (toile de 30 figure), mounted on triplex at a later date, 21 × 27 cm
F 377 JH 1328

Letters -.

Study for the following painting.

Provenance Estate of Vincent and Theo van Gogh; in 1962 transformed into the Vincent van Gogh Foundation and now on permanent loan to the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (s 121 V/1962).

Exhibitions On display with other works from the estate in Paris, September 1890, ‘Catalogue’ b 3055 V/1962, no. 44: ‘Tournesols gelés.’

First reproduced in De la Faille 1928.

Sunflowers
Oil on canvas (toile de 12 paysage basse), 43.2 × 61 cm
Signed and dated: Vincent 87
F 375 JH 1329

Letters 740/571: ‘[one of] mes deux tournesols qu'il [i.e. Gauguin] à prises à Paris’; for the second painting see the following entry.

Provenance Vincent van Gogh, Paris; given (in December 1887 or January 1888) in exchange to Paul Gauguin, Paris; sold 10 April 1896 to Ambroise Vollard, Paris; sold in 1897 or 1899 to Cornelis Hoogendijk, The Hague; sold at auction 12 May 1912 (directly?) to Alphonse Kann, Paris; sold in November 1917 while on exhibit in Zürich to Richard Bühler, Winterthur; sold 1 October 1928 to Galerie Thannhauser, Lucerne - Berlin (- New York); sold in 1949 to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. 49.41).

Exhibitions Zürich 1917, no 109: ‘Soleils. Coll. A.K.’; Winterthur 1922, no 52.

First reproduced in De la Faille 1928.

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Sunflowers
Oil on canvas (toile de 12 figure), 50 × 60.7 cm
Signed and dated: Vincent 87
F 376 JH 1331

Letters 740/571; see the previous entry.

Provenance Vincent van Gogh, Paris; given (in December 1887 or January 1888) in exchange to Paul Gauguin, Paris; sold 9 January 1895 to Ambroise Vollard, Paris; sold 15 February 1895 to Félix Roux, (Paris?); reacquired 23 October 1895 by Ambroise Vollard, Paris; sold 29 October 1895 to Edgar Degas, Paris; sold at auction 26/27 March 1918 to Paul Rosenberg, Paris; sold (directly?) to Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser-Bühler, Winterthur; by descent to Hans R. Hahnloser, Bern; donated in 1971 to the Kunstmuseum Bern (inv. 2140).

Exhibitions Winterthur 1922, no. 51; Basel 1924, no. 33 Zürich 1924, no. 32 and 21 (depending on the catalogue edition).

First reproduced in the sale catalogue of the Degas collection 1918.

Sunflowers
Oil on canvas (c. toile de 40 marine), 60 × 100 cm
F 452 JH 1330

Letters -.

Provenance Estate of Vincent and Theo van Gogh; sold in 1908 via C.M. van Gogh, Amsterdam, to Helene Kröller-Müller, The Hague; Kröller-Müllerstichting: on permanent loan to the Kröller-Müller-Museum, Otterlo.

Exhibitions On display with other works from the estate in Paris, September 1890, ‘Catalogue’ b 3055 V/1962, no. 84: ‘Soleil (40)’; transferred to Bussum in April 1891; loaned to various exhibitions from 1893 to 1908:

Copenhagen 1893, no. 190: ‘*Afblomstrede Solsikker’ [for sale]; Rotterdam 1896, no. 28: ‘Uitgebloeide zonnebloemen’; Paris, Vollard 1896, no cat. / loan list b 1437 V/1962, no. 23: ‘84 Tournesols fanés 500’; Wiesbaden 1903, no. 12 / loan list b 3257 V/1962, no. 4: ‘Tournesols défleuris 84 [M.] 1800’; Groningen 1904, no cat. / loan list b 1956 V/1962, no. 10: ‘84 - Uitgebloeide zonnebloemen 2000’; Amsterdam 1905, no. 47: ‘Uitgebloeide zonnebloemen’; Utrecht 1905, no. 14: ‘Uitgebloeide zonnebloemen’ [annotated ‘47’]; Rotterdam 1906, no. 14; Middelburg 1906, no cat. / loan list b 5443 V/1996, no. 14; Paris, Bernheim Jeune 1908, no. 26: ‘Tournesols défleuris’ [annotated ‘11000’] / loan list b 4046 V/1989, no. 10 / 10: ‘Tournesols mortes 47 [hfl.] 4500’; Munich, Brakl & Thannhauser 1908, no. 6: ‘Sonnenblumen (ausgeblüht) 4500’ [annotated ‘47’]; Dresden, Richter 1908, no. 6; Frankfurt 1908, no. 9; Rotterdam 1910, no. 26: ‘Zonnebloemen. Eigendom van Mevrouw A.G. Kröller te 's Gravenhage.’; Cologne, Sonderbund 1912, no. 29: ‘Vier Sonnenblumen. 1888. Besitzer Frau A.G. Kröller.’; The Hague 1913, no. 133; Antwerp 1914, no. 26.

Reproduced while on exhibit in Groningen: Onze Kunst 3 (July 1904), no. 7, plate following p. 6; photographed in Paris, February 1908 (Druet 7200).

Arles 1888

‘Tournesols’ (‘étude d'après nature’)
Oil on canvas (toile de 20 paysage), 73.5 × 60 cm
F 453 JH 1559 (see Dorn 1990, pp. 336-37, pl. 1)

Letters 670/526: ‘1) 3 grosses fleurs dans un vase vert fond clair toile de 15 [...].’

Provenance Estate of Vincent and Theo van Gogh; (given to?) Julien Tanguy, Paris; sold in 1891(?) to Octave Mirbeau, Paris; sold (before 1927) to Jacques Doucet, Paris; sold from his estate to Wildenstein, Paris and New York; sold c. 1948 to a private collector.

Exhibitions On display with other works from the estate in Paris, September 1890, ‘Catalogue’ b 3055 V/1962, no. 211: ‘Tourne-sol (20)’; Paris 1901, no. 4: ‘Tournesols sur fond bleu. Appartient à M. Octave Mirbeau’; Paris 1909, no. 27: ‘Tournesols. App. à M.O. Mirbeau.’

Photographed while hanging in Mirbeau's dining room (cf. Achille Segard, ‘Octave Mirbeau chez soi,’ Revue Illustré 13 [1 January 1898], ill.); and while on exhibit in Paris, November 1909 (Druet 7184, 7796 and 21349).

‘Tournesols’ (‘fond bleu de roi’)
Oil on canvas (toile de 25 figure?), mounted on wood and enlarged to 98 × 69 cm
F 459 JH 1560 (Dorn 1990, pp. 344-48, pl. 1)

Letters Initial state of the composition described in letter 670/526: ‘2) 3 fleurs une fleur ensemence et effeuilles & un bouton sur fond bleu de roi toile de 25.’

A sixth flower was added when the painting was elarged (bottom center).

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Provenance Estate of Vincent and Theo van Gogh; sold in July 1908 while on consignment with C.M. van Gogh, Amsterdam, to Fritz Meyer-Fierz, Zürich (and exhibited there); from spring 1919 on consignment with Paul Vallotton, Lausanne; sold in 1920 (via Bernheim Jeune, Paris?) to Koyata Yamamoto, Ashiya/Kôbe; destroyed in February 1945 by fire.

Exhibitions On display with other works from the estate in Paris, September 1890, ‘Catalogue’ b 3055 V/1962, no. 95: ‘Tourne-sol (40) sur fond bleu’; transferred to Bussum in April 1891; loaned to various exhibitions from 1893 to 1908: Paris 1896, no cat. / loan list b 1437 V/1962, no. 3: ‘95 Soleils (fond bleu) 800’; Amsterdam 1905, no. 105: ‘Zonnebloemen, op blauw fond’; Utrecht 1905, no. 34: ‘Zonnebloemen, op blauw fond’ [annotated ‘105’]; Rotterdam 1906, no. 32: ‘Zonnebloemen op blauw fond.’; Middelburg 1906, no cat. / loan list b 5443 V/1996, no. 32: ‘Zonnebloemen - blauw fond 1200’; Paris, Bernheim Jeune 1908, no. 34: ‘Tournesols’ [annotated ‘6000’] / loan list b 4046 V/1989, no. 41 /38: ‘Tournesols fond bleu 105 [hfl.] 2500’; Munich, Brakl & Thannhauser 1908, no. 29: ‘Sonnenblumen (blauer Fond) 2500’; Dresden, Richter 1908, no. 29; Frankfurt 1908, no. 34; Zürich 1908, no. 23: ‘Sonnenblumen’; Zürich 1914, no. 49: ‘Sonnenblumen. Oel’ [exhibition of the Meyer-Fierz collection]; Tokyo 1921, no.?

Photographed in Paris, February 1908 (Druet 7206).

‘Tournesols’ (‘fond clair’)
Oil on canvas (toile de 30 figure), 91 × 72 cm
Signed on the vase (below the line): Vincent
F 456 JH 1561 (Dorn 1990, pp. 340-43, pl. 1)

Letters Initial state of the composition described in letter 670/526: ‘3) douze fleurs & boutons dans vase jaune (toile de 30).’

A thirteenth flower was added shortly afterwards, closing a gap in the centre of the flowers above the vase.

Provenance Estate of Vincent and Theo van Gogh; on consignment with Paul Cassirer, Berlin, and sold 20 May 1905 to Hugo von Tschudi, Berlin/Munich; acquired on 25 January 1912 from his estate by an anonymous benefactor and donated to the Neue Pinakothek, Munich (inv. BSG 8672).

Exhibitions On display with other works from the estate in Paris, September 1890, ‘Catalogue’ b 3055 V/1962, no. 94: ‘Tourne-sol (30)’; transferred to Bussum in April 1891; loaned to various exhibitions from 1892 to 1905: Antwerp, Association pour l'Art, May/June 1892, no. 3: ‘Tournesol’; Paris, Vollard 1896, no cat. / loan list b 1437 V/1962, no. 9: ‘94 Soleils (fond vert) 800’; The Hague 1898, no. 2: ‘Sunflowers’ [annotated ‘94’ and ‘1215’]; Munich 1903, no. 233: ‘Die Sonnenblumen*’ [for sale]; Wiesbaden 1903, no. 16: ‘Sonnenblumen’ / loan list b 3257 V/1962, no. 6: ‘Tournesols 94 [M.] 3000’; Groningen 1904, no cat. / loan list b 1956 V/1962, no. 2: ‘94 - Zonnebloemen (groen fond) 1800’; Berlin, Paul Cassirer VII/7 1905, no. 28 / loan list b 2185 V/1982, no. 19: ‘94 - Zonnebloemen - groen fond 2200 - 1320’; Vienna 1906, no. 21: ‘Sonnenblumen. Berliner Privatbes.’

Photographed while on exhibition in Antwerp 1892; reproduced in 40 Photocollographies, Amsterdam 1904, pl. 29.

‘Tournesols’ (‘fond jaune’)
Oil on canvas (toile de 30 figure), 92.1 × 73 cm Signed on the vase (above the line): Vincent
F 454 JH 1562 (Dorn 1990, pp. 337-40, pl. 1)

Letters Initial state of the composition described in letter 672/527: ‘Ce quatrième est un bouquet de 14 fleurs et est sur fond jaune.’

A fifteenth flower was added shortly afterwards, i.e. the bud hanging down to the left of the vase.

Relined in 1942 by Helmut Ruhemann while removed from London due to the war.

Provenance Estate of Vincent and Theo van Gogh; sold in January 1924 to the Tate Gallery, London while on exhibit at the Leicester Galleries, London; transferred in 1961 to the National Gallery, London (inv. 3863).

Exhibitions On display with other works from the estate in Paris, September 1890?; transferred to Bussum in April 1891; loaned to various exhibitions from 1905 to 1923: Amsterdam 1905, no. 104: ‘Zonnebloemen, op geel fond’; Hagen 1905, no cat. / loan list b 2103 V/1982, no. 14: ‘104 Zonnebloemen 10000 [hfl.]’; Paris, Bernheim-Jeune 1908, not exhibited / loan list b 4046 V/1989, no. 40 / 37C: ‘Tournesols 104’ [no price]; Berlin, Paul Cassirer X/7 1908, no. 8: ‘Sonnenblumen’; Dresden, Richter 1908, no. 74: ‘Sonnenblumen’ / loan list b 2191 V/1982, no. 9: ‘Sonnenblumen 104 unverkäufl.’; Berlin, Paul Cassirer XI/2 1908, no. 40: ‘Sonnenblumen’ / loan list ‘Bijgevoegde,’ b 4058 V/1989, note: ‘[in Berlijn is] Zonnebloemen 104-’ [not for sale]; Berlin, Paul Cassirer XI/9 1909, no cat.; Munich, Brakl 1909, no. 20: ‘Sonnenblumen 104 unverkäufl.’; Frankfurt 1910, no cat.; Dresden, Arnold 1910, no cat. / loan list b 2181 recto, no. 20; Chemnitz, Gerstenberger 1910, no cat.; Rotterdam 1910, no. 9 / loan list b 2200 V/1982, no. 4: ‘Zonnebloemen 104 6000’; Amsterdam 1911, no. 37(?) / loan list b 5479 V/1996, no. 19: ‘Zonnebloemen op geel fond onv. 104’; Hamburg, Commeter 1911, no cat. / loan list b 3817 V/1989, no. 24: ‘Zonnebloemen 104 unverkäuflich’; Breslau and Dresden, Arnold 1912, no. 14 / no list, evidently the previous exhibition; Cologne, Sonderbund 1912, no. 28 / loan list b 3815 V/1989, no. 2: ‘Zonnebloemen onverkoopbar’; Berlin, Paul Cassirer 1914, no. 44 [annotated ‘93:73’ and ‘sign.’]; London, Leicester Galleries 1923, no. 26, ill. p. 21 / loan list b 5935 V/1996, no. 1: ‘Sunflowers Insurance F. 15 000.-’ [not for sale).

Photographed in Paris, February 1908 (Druet 8170), and in Cologne, summer 1912 (Rheinisches Bild-Archiv 32015, 32411).

Arles 1889

‘Tournesols’ (‘fond clair’) ‘repetition’ Oil on canvas (toile de 30 figure), 92 × 72.5 cm Signed on the vase (below the line): Vincent
F 455 JH 1668 (Ronald Pickvance, Christie's review of the season 1987, p. 70; Dorn 1990, pp. 455-56, pl. 9)

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Letters 747/574.

Provenance Estate of Vincent and Theo van Gogh; probably on consignment with (or given to?) Julien Tanguy, Paris; sold (directly?) to Ambroise Vollard, Paris; sold 21 December 1896 to the Comte Antoine de la Rochefoucauld, Paris; sold to Paul Rosenberg, Paris and New York; sold 28 July 1928 (under the title ‘Soleils sur fond jaune’!) to Carroll S. Tyson, Philadelphia; bequeathed in 1963 by his widow to The Philadelphia Museum of Art (inv. 63-116-19).

Exhibitions On display with other works from the estate in Paris, September 1890, ‘Catalogue’ b 3055 V/1962, no. 119 or 195; ‘Tourne-sol (30)’; Paris 1901, no. 6: ‘Tournesols sur fond jaune. Appartient au Comte Antoine de la Rochefoucauld’ [in the copy dedicated to Jo (b 5737 V/1996) Leclercq emended ‘jaune’ and added ‘veronése’]; Paris 1905, no. 8: ‘Soleils (peinture). Collection Comte Antoine de la Rochefoucauld.’

Photographed in Paris, spring 1905 (Druet 2390).

‘Tournesols’ (‘fond jaune’) ‘repetition’
Oil on canvas (toile de 30 figure), enlarged to 95 × 73 cm
Signed on the vase (below the line): Vincent
F 458 JH 1667 (Dorn 1990, pp. 461-62, pl. 9)

Letters 747/574.

Background along the upper edge repainted when enlarged by addition of a strip of wood, 3 cm high; probably restored in January/March 1901 in Paris; relined by Traas in 1961; examined by Ashok Roy in May 1992.

Provenance Estate of Vincent and Theo van Gogh; transformed in 1962 into the Vincent van Gogh Foundation and now on permanent loan to the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (s 31 V/1962).

Exhibitions On display with other works from the estate in Paris, September 1890, ‘Catalogue’ b 3055 V/1962, no. 194: ‘Tourne-sol (30)’; transferred to Bussum in April 1891; on loan from June 1900 to March 1901 to Julien Leclercq, Paris, and restored towards the end of this period; on display for several days at an exhibition arranged by Leclercq at the Galerie Bernheim Jeune, March 1901, hors catalogue / ‘Lijst van de Schilderijen en Parijs bij Leclercq 6 Rue Vercingetorix,’ b 5738 V/1996, no. 7: ‘194 × Zonnebloemen f 600 fr. 1200’; Amsterdam 1905, no. 103: ‘Zonnebloemen, op geel fond’ [annotated ‘Utrecht’]; Utrecht 1905, no. 33: ‘Zonnebloemen, op geel fond’ [annotated ‘103’]; Amsterdam 1911, no. 37(?) / loan list b 5479 V/1996, no. 18: ‘Zonnebloemen op geel fond. onv. 103’; Basel 1924, no. 40; Zürich 1924, no. 39 and 35 (depending on the catalogue edition); Stuttgart 1924, no. 16; Paris, Marcel Bernheim 1925, no. 26.

First reproduced in De la Faille 1928.

‘Tournesols’ (‘fond vert jaune’)
[colour variant]
Oil on burlap (toile de 30 figure), enlarged to 100 × 76 cm
F 457 JH 1666 (Ronald Pickvance, Christie's review of the season 1987, pp. 70-73; Dorn 1990, pp. 456-61, pl. 9)

Letters -.

Provenance Estate of Vincent and Theo van Gogh; on consignment with Julien Tanguy, Paris, and sold in March



1894 to Emile Schuffenecker, Paris; sold c. 1903 to his brother Amédée Schuffenecker, Meudon; sold in (late) 1907 to Eugène Druet, Paris; sold in 1910 to Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Berlin; sold to Paul Rosenberg, Paris; sold in 1934 to Sir Alfred and Lady Edith Beatty, London; by descent to Helen Chester Beatty, London; sold at auction 30 March 1987 to the Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company, Ltd., Tokyo, and now on permanent display at the Seiji Togo Memorial Yasuda Kasai Museum of Art, Tokyo.

Exhibitions On display with other works from the estate in Paris, September 1890, ‘Catalogue’ b 3055 V/1962, no. 119 or 195: ‘Tourne-sol (30).’; Paris 1901, no. 5: ‘Tournesols sur fond vert très pale. Appartient à M.E. Schuffenecker.’; Brussels 1904, no. 173: ‘Tournesols. Exposition des XX, 1890.*’ [for sale]; Mannheim 1907, no. 1072 and 366c (depending on the catalogue edition): ‘Blumen’ (first edition; changed in the second to fourth editions into) ‘Sonnenblumen, Oelgemälde [...] aus Sammlung Schuffenecker, Paris,’ with acknowledgements to the lender ‘Schuffenecker, Amédée, Meudon,’ p. 14; Paris, Druet 1908, no. 35: ‘Tournesols. Galerie Druet.’; Paris, Druet 1909, no. 12: ‘Tournesols. App. à M.E. Druet.’; London 1910/1911, no. 72: ‘Les Soleils (Lent by Herr Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy).’

Photographed in Paris c. 1907 (Druet 6559), and in November 1909 (Druet 21350).