Vincent Van Gogh’s Irises was complete in 1889, one year prior to his suicide. The work was done in South France after Van Gogh’s retreat to establish an artist’s colony and pursue a “breath of fresh air.” His last two years were spent in and around Arles with occasional confinement to St. Remy Mental Hospital. In any case, the Irises is no more than that – a garden of blue irises with special emphasis on a single white iris. The uprising leaves are add to the frustration of the peace with calm yellow flowers coexisting peacefully at the top of the work.
His move to southern France would be the source of Van Gogh’s influence leading to his mental and physical skill established through the Irises. Van Gogh, while in Paris and the surrounding area, joined up with the Impressionists where he found an admiration for lighting, and small, swift brush strokes. These techniques are apparent not so much in his strokes, but Van Gogh’s long and flowing leaves expressing a free flowing, “natural” look to his irises, or directionless appeal. The lack of direction is accented with a certain craziness, a violent fight between the flowers as they race for the light above, the omniscient light. His light, however, implies midafternoon, neither dusk or dawn, leaving little room for shadows normally involved with the rising and setting sun that also brings forth vibrant colors from the Impressionist – none of which are present.
Amongst these influences, Van Gogh’s failing life and mental stability led him to a great depression. This depression, leading to his suicide, was interacted with his brother Theo and develops towards a well developed theory. The emphasis of a lone white iris, enveloped by several blue flowers of the like, could very well reflect Van Gogh’s loneliness, and isolation. His failed attempt at a colony of artists and rejection by such artists as Gauguin could very much be involved in this breakdown. His works, never achieving fame nor fortune from the populace during his lifetime did not provide any reassurement either. Other speak, however, of the idea that Van Gogh simply ran out of blue paint, and being confined during these years, could not attain more thus completing his work with white paint, a color he used little of throughout the peice.
Irises by Vincent Van Gogh were not as recognized so much for his style and addition to the styles of other Impressionist as much as it reinforces one of the oldest establishments for art, that of reflection. A reflection of the artists thoughts, of his/her lifestyles as well as the often reoccurent “tragedy” of being an artist, unrecognized. Art History, this focus of which, Van Gogh’s and the lifestyles of many other artist leads the public to probe, to discover the troubles and reasons leading to artist’s decisions is an expansion of education, for this reason the Irises cannot be overlooked as a successful definition of a “good piece.”

-Travis Breaux