Irises, 1889 Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

We create our paintings with museum quality and covering the highest academic standards. Once we get your order, it will be entirely hand-painted with oil on canvas. All the materials we use are the highest level, being totally artist graded painting materials and linen canvas.

We will add 1.6" (4 cm) additional blank canvas all over the painting for stretching.

High quality and detailing in every inch are time consuming. The reproduction of Vincent van Gogh also needs time to dry in order to be completely ready for shipping, as this is crucial to not be damaged during transportation.
Based on the size, level of detail and complexity we need 8-9 weeks to complete the process.

In case the delivery date needs to be extended in time, or we are overloaded with requests, there will be an email sent to you sharing the new timelines of production and delivery.

TOPofART wants to remind you to keep patient, in order to get you the highest quality, being our mission to fulfill your expectations.

We not stretch and frame our oil paintings due to several reasons:
Painting reproduction is a high quality expensive product, which we cannot risk to damage by sending it being stretched.
Also, there are postal restrictions, regarding the size of the shipment.
Additionally, due to the dimensions of the stretched canvas, the shipment price may exceed the price of the product itself.

You can stretch and frame your painting in your local frame-shop.

Once the painting Irises is ready and dry, it will be shipped to your delivery address. The canvas will be rolled-up in a secure postal tube.

We offer free shipping as well as paid express transportation services.

After adding your artwork to the shopping cart, you will be able to check the delivery price using the Estimate Shipping and Tax tool.

The paintings we create are only of museum quality. Our academy graduated artists will never allow a compromise in the quality and detail of the ordered painting. TOPofART do not work, and will never allow ourselves to work with low quality studios from the Far East. We are based in Europe, and quality is our highest priority.

Blue and violet irises crowd a garden bed, their tall stems rising above a tangle of pointed green leaves. The flowers spread right up to the edges, with several cut off by the frame. There is no sky and little sense of distance. Instead, the close viewpoint gives the plants a scale and presence that a wider view of the garden would lose.

The color is organized into broad areas: rusty orange earth below, cool blue-green foliage across the middle, and yellow-orange flowers scattered through the greenery behind. Against the warm soil, the leaves look especially cool and fresh. Their long, sweeping curves contrast with the short, broken strokes that roughen the ground. Dark blue outlines separate overlapping leaves and trace the folded edges of petals, making even the busiest passages easy to follow.

Vincent van Gogh began Irises during his first week at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, France, in May 1889. After a period of serious illness and hospital treatment, he had chosen to enter the institution. The garden provided a subject he could study directly from living plants. This close attention to their particular shapes is visible throughout the picture; the flowers are observed individuals rather than a repeated floral motif.

Japanese woodblock prints probably helped shape the composition. The abrupt cropping, strong contours, and large color areas have affinities with their decorative designs. Yet the plants do not settle into a flat pattern. Leaves cross and bend, stems emerge between them, and heavy blossoms tip in different directions. These overlaps give the crowded bed depth without opening a distant view.

Van Gogh regarded the painting as a study, and no preparatory drawings are known. Theo, his brother, saw its quality immediately and arranged for it to appear at the Salon des Indépendants in September 1889. He praised the force of its effect across the exhibition space, as well as its freshness and vitality.

The blossoms repay that attention individually. Some stand upright with broad upper petals; others droop, turn sideways, or fold into narrow shapes. Small yellow marks break through the blues at their centers. On the left, a single large white iris interrupts the darker flowers, its pale petals outlined against the dense green growth.