About Irises Plagued by mental illness throughout his life, prolific Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh chose to enter an asylum in Saint-Rémy, France in May 1889, where, in the last year before his death, he created almost 130 paintings. Irises was the first painting Van Gogh started after his arrival.
Each iris petal in the painting is unique, featuring different shading, shape and size and painted with the same precision as Van Gogh’s portraits. There is no repetition, but rather an endless variety of curved silhouettes. Only one blossom, however, is a completely different color. He paints the flowers with admiration and joy.
Van Gogh was a master painter who strongly influenced the abstract and Neo-expressionist who came after him. Originating from the Netherlands, he discovered Impressionist art while living in Paris and started to use the color and light. His work is well known for its beauty, emotion, and color, as well as its interesting viewpoints of mundane objects.
Despite being extremely poor and generally unknown throughout his lifetime, Van Gogh is now one of the greatest Dutch painters. He lived a life with emotional tension and madness, and he created his finest piece, Starry Night, inside an institution.
Although the specter of mental illness haunted him throughout his adult life and created a habit of inflicting self-harm (such as the infamous severed ear), his work remained a testament to his genius. Van Gogh died at the age of only 37, due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His brother Theo would go on to distribute his work and cultivate his popularity.
