Sunflowers Compare and Contrast: Claude

¶ … Sunflowers

Compare and Contrast: Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers"

Both Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh selected the subject of sunflowers for two of their most famous still life paintings. But although both artist's works may depict the same type of flower, the color, light, and, and shading of the two works is completely different. Secondly, the arrangements of the paintings are also completely distinct, in terms of what is the main focus for artist and the viewer. Monet shows the sunflowers in an off-center way, the sunflowers are not individualistic, and the lighting rather than the flowers are the main focus of the painting. Van Gogh's centrally placed flowers make the flowers the most important aspect of the painting, and every flower has a distinct personality. Finally, the mood of Monet's painting is gentle and serene, while Van Gogh's is wild and unbalanced, as a result of these differences of shading and the placement of the painting's subject.

Monet's "Sunflowers" shows a vase of sunflowers sitting on a table. Most of the sunflowers turn their faces away from the viewer. Although some of the stems of the various sunflowers are long and others are short, all of the flowers seem to rest in the same vase in the same state of harmony. No single flower is more memorable than any other single flower, unlike the contrasting colors, sizes and different states of health of Van Gogh's flowers. The colors of the Monet painting are warm, but hazy. The flowers are mostly the same color, and are shown in the same sort of way. The yellows and oranges of the Monet painting look like they are seen through gauze. The time of day of the Monet painting is likely afternoon. The setting is likely to be in a drawing room, or some peaceful place of a home, where the sunflowers were picked for a display. The light compliments the pale colors of the flowers. The flowers look almost like cotton balls, because of their texture, the light, and the lack of distinct brightness to their hue. But in contrast to Monet's sunflowers, Vincent Van Gogh's painting of the same flower, in a similar type of bouquet, seems to jump out at the viewer. The painting is a series of wild, bright yellow and browns swirls. In fact, before a viewer even knows that the flowers of the painting are sunflowers, he or she might be startled by the brightness of the painting's colors. Van Gogh's colors are almost unnatural. Van Gogh's colors seem to shout, while Monet's colors seem to whisper.

The arrangement of the Van Gogh painting also forces the viewer to look more closely at the individual flowers. Most of the faces of the Van Gogh sunflowers, rather than turn away from the viewer, seem to look at the viewer directly, while others are dying, as if expressing their sadness as they look away. Because of their brightness, and the detail given to each individual flower, the centers of the healthy flowers seem to look like eyes, looking into the viewer's soul, rather than away at something else as in the case of Monet's painting. Even the colors of the central vase are brighter in Van Gogh's painting than in Monet's and jump out at the viewer in the center of the composition. The vase is painted with bright colors, while in the Monet painting the viewer hardly notices the off-center vase. It is hard to imagine the Van Gogh flowers in their bright vase standing quietly in a peaceful corner of a room like Monet's flowers. The viewer feels like an observer in the Monet painting, like a fly on the wall, but the viewer of the Van Gogh painting stares at the sunflowers as if the viewer were looking into the eyes of a human being painted in a portrait. All of this is due to how the arrangements of the flowers contribute to the distinct tones of both paintings. Monet's vase of flowers is slightly off center, which seems to make the flowers seem less important. What is interesting about the painting is not the flowers, but the way that the light seems to cause the flowers to look hazy, gauzy, and makes them hard to see clearly. But in Van Gogh's painting, the sunflowers form the focus picture and take center stage. It is as if the artist is saying that they are so important, they cannot be pushed to the side of a room or corner. The sunflowers seem to have a distinct personality, again, almost like a portrait rather than a still life. Also, there is no clear direction of the light in Van Gogh's painting. The sunflowers are harsh and bright in their yellow and orange tones as if lit from above, while the Monet flowers seem to be lit from an angle.