Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh is the title of two series of still life paintings. This one in particular has become the most well-recognized from the second series with all paintings depicting sunflowers in vases. The second series of five canvases were created in Arles, south of France, between 1888 and 1889. Van Gogh intentionally used only three shades of yellow ‘and nothing else’ to depict the sunflowers which he thought communicated ‘gratitude’.