Irises (1890) by Vincent Van Gogh.
The painting was influenced by Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Its first owner was the French art critic Octave Mirbeau who was also one of Van Gogh’s first supporters. Mirbeau paid 300 francs for it. Vincent painted many flowers while in France, utilizing the brighter colors he saw.
At age 15, young Van Gogh quit Willem II College in Tilburg (a middle school) and returned home. Constantijn C. Huysmans, a successful Parisian artist, taught Van Gogh to draw at the school and used a systematic approach to the subject. He later told his brother, in an 1883 letter, “My youth was gloomy and cold and sterile.”
