The Philadelphia Museumof Art is pleased to present Van Gogh’s Sunflowers: A Symphony in Blue and Yellow, a rare presentation of two of Vincent van Gogh’s celebrated sunflowerpaintings side-by-side. From 6th June to 11th October, 2026, the installation will provide a unique opportunity to view two treasured works, one completed in August 1888, on loan from the National Gallery in London, and one from 1889 from the museum’s own collection.
Van Gogh’s sunflowers have never been the subject of a focused study in Philadelphia, and the five large-scale canvases in existence today—held in collections in London, Philadelphia, Amsterdam, Munich, and Tokyo—have only been seen together in the United States twice, in Chicago in 2001 and Philadelphia in 1954. Their international display is rare, and this exhibition will offer a fresh look at Van Gogh’s fascination with the subject, as well as his motivations and ambitions behind the series.
In a single week in August 1888, Van Gogh painted four sunflower works, vertical canvases of varying sizes dominated by yellow and orange bouquets, and silhouetted against resplendent green, royal blue, turquoise, and yellow backgrounds. The ubiquity of the sunflower paintings today disguises their initial role as exercises in color and brushwork, intended to decorate the modest building in Arles, France that housed the artist’s studio. Encouraged by fellow artist Paul Gauguin’s reaction to the canvases, and intent on new decorative schemes, Van Gogh returned to sunflowers five months later. His creative framing and display of the canvases in the eighteen months that followed has established their centrality to Van Gogh’s artistic identity.
The exhibition will be supplemented by an audio guide, placing the canvases in conversation with one another and within the artist’s wider practice. Van Gogh’s Sunflowers will also be accompanied by a book of essays and illustrations offering insight into the artist’s ambitions, his relationship with Gauguin, and the ways in which he framed and presented the sunflowers.
Van Gogh imagined creating ’a symphony in blue and yellow’ with a dozen paintings of sunflowers. While he never painted that many canvases of his favorite flower, the exhibition will offer an unparalleled chance to study two Sunflowers and consider how he used color and brushstrokes to such expressive effect.”
Jennifer Thompson, the Gisela and Dennis Alter Curator of European Painting, Curator of the John G. Johnson Collection, and Head of European Art
Van Gogh’s Sunflowers: A Symphony in Blue and Yellow is at The Philadelphia Museum of Art from 6th June to 11th October, 2026. Find more information here.
