Famous Art for the Pandemic – and Life

Update 03 July 2025: This post was initially published during the 2020/2021 COVID pandemic. As an art history professor, world traveler and lover of great art and art museums, I set out to connect famous art with what was going on in the world around us. First posted on Face Book, it moved into the creation of this website. Click here for additional postings on a Year in the Life of the Pandemic.

“Irises”

by Vincent Van Gogh, 1889, Dutch, Post-Impressionist painter

Departing out of Barcelona, the first stop on our [COVID cancelled] Mediterranean cruise was the southern coast of France.  I will miss seeing the irises of France, but I am thoroughly enjoying the exquisite irises in own garden on my Minnesota Stay-cation, something I typically miss during our May travels!

One of the most revered artists of all time, van Gogh considered himself a failure personally and professionally.  He only sold one painting in his lifetime; today his paintings can be worth millions of dollars! (There is hope; at least maybe for the ancestors of us starving artists!) 

During the last year of Van Gogh’s life he committed himself to a mental asylum near Saint-Remy, in the south of France, where he completed nearly 130 paintings, mostly of flowers in their garden.  Arriving in May 1888 when the irises were in full bloom, he focused on them.  This oil painting is one of his most famous. 

If you enjoyed this post, thanks for the encouragement with a simple “LIKE” below! And of course, encouraging comments are also always welcome. ~Cher

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