Vase with Red Gladiolas Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

Description of Vincent van Gogh’s Still Life with Gladioluses

Vincent Van Gogh was a great Impressionist who created many magnificent still lifes. One of the basic tenets of Post-Impressionism is the depiction of the world of things, conveying the materiality of our world. Van Gogh looks at the simple world of things in a special way, finds beauty in the elemental. The artist’s still lifes have been recognized as innovative; he turned his work on them into an experiment and artistic search.

Painting by Vincent Van Gogh "Still Life with gladioluses" written in 1886. It does not deviate from the usual performance of still lifes with flowers Van Gogh, as always picturesque flowers painted in a free creative manner of the artist. It would seem that the canvas depicts ordinary flowers in a vase, but Van Gogh knows how to show the ordinary by the beautiful. He sees the beauty in the inner essence of objects and splashes it on the canvas.

With this painting, the master praises the living beauty of flowers. They are depicted in bright colors. All the hues on the canvas are bright and saturated, but especially striking are the bright red petals of gladioluses in the center. Van Gogh also depicts asters in a vase to contrast with the lushness and brightness of the gladioluses. They are smaller, more faded, just white, but also incredibly lively and beautiful. Several of the asters, which do not fit in the vase, are tossed carelessly on the table.

The greenery of the bouquet is not as rich compared to the petals, it blends in with the green wall. The leaves are clearly drawn, with a slight shadow on them. In the background, the wall is a shade of green turning to brownish yellow. The table is also brown with a yellow hue, most likely wooden. For contrast the table is painted schematically, rustic, but the vase and the flowers are written accurately and clearly. The vase itself is green with an intricate white pattern. Overall, the painting leaves a pleasant impression on the viewer, it’s poetic.