As our NFT Flower collection demonstrates, flowers were an essential ingredient of Van Gogh’s art. This sketch dates from the second half of 1888. It is a reproduction of a study the painter had just completed during a creative frenzy culminating in a remarkable series of masterpieces. The main purpose of the painting is to depict the interplay of vibrant colours in the stark light of the South of France. As this effect could not be rendered with black ink alone, Van Gogh provided a detailed description of the different aspects of the composition. On the left, we see tall sunflowers of the kind he immortalised a few weeks later. It is often thought that the artist drew inspiration from sunflower fields and this anachronism has been featured in many films. There were in fact no sunflower fields in France before the 1960s.