Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers
Vincent van Gogh
Oil on canvas
95.0 x 73.0 cm.
January 1889
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
In order to understand the importance of forged Sunflowers paintings to van Gogh’s reputation, we must first understand the driving impetus behind the reproduction and redistribution of his famous, original work. To start, we must realize the presence of two distinct spheres of reproduction – copying and forgery. Copying, or the act of imitating an artist’s work in a respectful way lacking criminal purpose, is usually performed for the sake of preservation of the work or as homage to the artist, as Timothy Ryback indicates in his article, “The So-Called Van Gogh’s,” published in Art News Online (Ryback). Many times, van Gogh painted copies of his pieces to serve as duplicates, and also as gifts to friends. In fact, as Derwent May notes in “A Collaboration that Coloured and Crazed,” van Gogh made several copies of his Sunflowers since he had intended to give the original version of Sunflowers to Gauguin as a gift (May, 21). Forgery, on the other hand, as expressed by David Phillips in the Grove Dictionary of Art, is done with the intent of deceit, often with the lucrative incentive of financial compensation if the piece is sold with unchecked and unquestioned authenticity (Phillips). For this reason, and because genuine copies do exist, van Gogh’s Sunflowers has swirled in a wind of controversy over the authenticity of every copy, the most notable one being the work simply dubbed as the Yasuda Sunflowers. While some scholars claim it to be a genuine, reputable copy, others contend it is simply a forgery.