Roses in a Vase Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

Description of the painting "White Roses" by Vincent van Gogh

"White Roses" represents Van Gogh’s later work, when he was close to both insanity and his tragic death. Wanting to rest, he left Paris for the suburbs, where he painted a lot of flowers--on bushes, in vases, without a clear background--and the roses must have caught his eye by accident.

There are very few flowers in the picture, it immediately catches his eye. The table is an indeterminate white color, the tone of which is changed by the shadows falling on it. The vase is green, a dark, saturated color. The wall is light green, not so much contrasting with the vase as continuing its overflow of color. The roses themselves are variegated, looking as if they had been picked on different days.

Some are lush white, just plucked, bright. Others are wilted, yellowish, one such bud lying on the table. This contrast, along with the petals that have fallen on the table, the contrast between life and death, or rather death and death, is perceived as a bit even creepy.

It’s as if Van Gogh found a certain pleasure in putting dead flowers together, and as if to compare them in writing, withering and full of ghostly life, yellow and white, those soon to go to the compost heap and those that will outlast them by two days.

There is something unnatural, something profoundly wrong, in this contrast of deaths, and perhaps there is a struggle of the artist’s inner demons hidden in the innocuous still life.

However, it is also possible that Van Gogh simply took a fancy to the flowers, the contrast of the wall and the vase, and painted them hastily, without thinking that many years later his descendants will be looking for a higher meaning in his actions.

It is unlikely that he ever imagined that there would be descendants in years to come who would appreciate his work and analyze it seriously and thoughtfully.

Perhaps if he had been sure of this, his life would have ended differently.