Vincent van Gogh: Sunflowers, Letters & Life | The National Gallery, London

In August 1888 Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo of his plan to paint sunflowers in a dozen panels. He planned the series as 'a symphony in blue and yellow'.

Lucrezia Walker, Freelance Lecturer at the National Gallery, talks about the significance of the 'Sunflower' series in exploring Van Gogh as an artist.

The lecture, 'Van Gogh: Sunflowers, Letters & Life' was held as part of the Gallery's 2014 display 'The Sunflowers', which witnessed the rare reunion of two of Van Gogh's famous 'Sunflower' masterpieces.

[renelevaillant]

Really well done, one of the very best, thanks!!

[druid]

Theo was Vincent's younger brother, not his older.

[MiaFeigelsonGallery]

Lucrezia, thank you so much for your highly interesting lecture, I learnt a lot from you !
The National Gallery, thank you as well !

[EDBrown-mlss]

Just to set the record straight, Vincent Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, not April 15, 1853.

[waltevans]

lovely presentation young lady, , enjoyed it very much with my supper alone, and i share Vincent love of art too and followed him, in that i have painted all my life unknown

[lastredrose]

Thank you. it's a pleasure to re listen this talk!

[pasteriori]

i guess no one would raise the fact, those painting are bad. vincent's life was not in fact exceptional, and there is no lessons to draw from his life, i would say dull. this is why historians put enphasis on his mental ilness, cause he got nothing else. Basically vincent's art was used to laundry huge amounts of money. current art history is like mass media, for profit. vincent sells, they would continue talk about him, and how great his chiety art is.

[wayneking]

Very informative and educational lecture. Thank you for showing this video.

[Anonymous-hy]

Vincent was born on March 30, 1853. I'm surprised she got a fairly simple fact wrong

[jackbailey]

Van Gogh has had to endure thousands of hours of amateur psychoanalysis by art commentators for the last hundred years. This talk no exception.

[yvonnefarrell]

At 25:50 the bedroom in Arles is a sort of "Alice in Wonderland syndrome" image as if the bedroom were twice its real-life size. What a great lecture we are watching here this nine years after it was given originally! Thank you National Gallery!

[eamonnmurphy]

Excellent, clear and insightful lecture..

[soundhein]

Van gogh is one of the many painters who, after his death and as many, were praised to heaven by so-called art experts, which was especially beneficial for the art connoisseur because he had already collected quite a few paintings himself or whatever advantage. Van gogh was not at all great artist, but after his death so cleverly put it higher than van gogh really was.

[mickyfun]

Did I hear Professor Lucrezia Walker say "the fact that Gauging himself was from Peru" (35:40)! No, he was not from Peru. According to everything I have read, Paul Gaugin was born in Paris in 1848, but he spent his early childhood in Lima, Peru, where his family had moved, and where his maternal grandfather, Don Mario Tristan y Moscoso lived.

[midnightchannel]

Refer to very strong evidence online, quoting new research (ie, past 20 years) that :

1) Gauguin cut Vincent ear off, much proof of this, and Gauguin intentionally blames Vincent to avoid jail. Most if not ALL accounts of Vincent overt "mad" behaviour came from Gauguin after the ear event .

2) Very convincing argument has been made that a teenage bully shot Vincent and Vincent covered for him, took the blame, because he knew he was going to die and didn't want to ruin the kids life. I think Vincent made a mistake doing that...

3) Very convincing argument that Vincent suffered from "the Madness of King George", porphyria, which you can also see clearly in the health (or lack of it) of his other siblings and many of his extended relatives in this inbred family - many first cousins marrying first cousins for generations. NOT the kind of "mad" behavior recounted by Gauguin, but "epileptic" fits accompanied by crushing cluster headaches, deep depression (e.g., rendering him unable to move) not remembering, not able to conduct himself independantly, etc.

[midnightchannel]

It's always interesting to me what lecturers do * not * say... The other reason Gauguin went to Brittany, and the main reason imho, was that there was already a small community of artists there who all * adored * Gauguin, and with whom none could compete artistically. This is how Gauguin liked it.

Vincent * also * adored Gauguin and had deep professional respect for him, but unlike the other artists Gauguin chose to surround himself with, Vincent refused to abdicate his personal views on art to those of his friend.

Really pissed Gauguin off, evidenced by Vincent's ear he then sliced off after the famous Christmas argument on art... We have Vincent to thank for everything Gauguin later created in Tahiti because he chose not to prosecute, leaving Gauguin's (cowardly) accusation of self mutilation to stand...

(Witness the many such flower painting Gauguin chose to paint in Tahiti, all with a single eye staring out if the petals. The Eye of God. Conscience.) ..

[midnightchannel]

(The Minister had three sons, actually.)

[lareinedubois]

For a highly educated woman, sure says ummm a lot tho

[hamidachan]

Fabulous. My favourite artist.❤️💜🙋😽🇬🇧 X Thank you for sharing your knowledge Van Gogh's life and paintings. I visited an exhibition at South Kensington, London. Was a fantastic exhibition.❤️💜 August 2021.

[lafregaste]

so... how exactly is it thought Vicent van Gogh "CONTRACTED" depression, from his land lady? Using that kind of word is quite disgusting when talking about mental illnesses. People who suffer with depression are not "contagious", nobody can catch depression from someone else, it would be hard even for someone to replicate the depression of someone else. Maybe their relationship was toxic and the problems caused some kind of depression or depressive behaviour, but in no way a person can pass on to another their mental illness. In general is rude to say something like that, but it makes it even worse the fact that has been broadcasted by a public entity.