In the manner of Vincent van Gogh
Dutch, 1853–1890
Sunflowers in a Water Bottle, 2026
Oil on canvas
90 × 72 cm
Never painted.
Commissioned for the collection, 2026.
PAB 2026.9.3
← Bedroom in a Shared Flat Starry Night over the Ring Road →
Sunflowers jammed into a plastic water bottle on a yellow counter against a yellow wall: yellow on yellow on yellow, which is how Van Gogh set out to paint his sunflowers, to see whether it could be done. The bottle is the modern part, and he paints it as lovingly as a vase. There is a sink, and a pot of spoons, because this is a kitchen and somebody lives here.
The brief
A bunch of sunflowers stuffed into a plastic water bottle on a kitchen counter, yellow on yellow, thick paint. Post-Impressionist oil painting, thick directional impasto strokes that swirl and vibrate, cobalt and chrome yellow in violent harmony, outlined forms, exaggerated perspective, energetic sky and ground, emotional intensity in ordinary subjects, heavy paint texture casting its own shadows. Museum photograph of the oil painting, even gallery lighting revealing impasto, no frame, no text, no wall, no floor, cropped to the canvas edge.
Written to the house rules. The painter's name does not appear.
Take it home
The painting on this room's wall, at its own proportions, nothing written on it.
