Oleanders

Time for some flowers by Vincent van Gogh ... and they won't be sunflowers this time!

For van Gogh, oleanders were joyful, life-affirming flowers that bloomed “inexhaustibly” and were always “sending out strong new shoots.” In this August 1888 painting, they overflow from a majolica jug the artist often used for his Arles still lifes. Van Gogh sets them symbolically beside Émile Zola’s La joie de vivre—the same novel he once contrasted with an open Bible in another still life he created in 1885.

Pink hues in the flowers echo the color of the table, while their whites pick up the tone of the book’s edge. The jug’s purple handle forms a harmonious triad with the blossoms and the lilac shadow. A yellow band around the jug’s neck returns as wavy streaks within the bouquet. The green of the leaves reappears in a cooler, paler shade at the jug’s base and in quick strokes on the right side of the table, as well as in the jug’s ornament; that same turquoise note then resurfaces unexpectedly among the leaves themselves.

P.S. Check out other flower artworks by van Gogh featured in Flowers in Art 50 Postcards Set.  :) 

P.P.S. As you can see, Van Gogh's art is not just about Sunflowers and Starry Night. Discover Vincent van Gogh in 10 paintings!