The role and status of the artist changed fundamentally in the ninetheenth century. Interest grew in the person behind the work and the artist's portrait became a popular genre. Artists were keen to show themselves as individuals as well as painters, while also acting as their own models.

A Masterpiece Examined.

Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers, which he completed in the southern French town of Arles in 1888 and 1889, are among his most famous paintings. In radiant shades of yellow, he created five large still lifes featuring vases of sunflowers, which now hang in museums all over the world. This book focuses on the version of Sunflowers in the Van Gogh Museum’s collection – a masterpiece that has been studied in recent years by an international team of more than thirty sc...