Sunflowers (1887)

Long before Vincent van Gogh painted the sunflowers in vases that made him famous, he tried something quieter. This 1887 study, created while he was living in Paris, shows two cut sunflower heads resting against a churning sea of blue. The blooms have seen better days, with petals dried out and curling inward, which lends the whole scene a gentle sense of sadness. Down in the lower left corner, the artist signed himself simply as "Vincent," a small personal touch that feels almost like a whisper.

The real fun of this painting lies in watching an artist figure things out. Van Gogh piled on paint with thick, restless strokes that run through both the golden seed heads and the deep blue surrounding them. He was clearly fascinated by the way warm yellow plays against cool blue, a pairing he kept coming back to throughout his career. These early flower studies worked as a kind of rehearsal, teaching him the shapes and moods of the bloom that would go on to become his most beloved subject.