The Easel

A Met Exhibit Contains Multitudes In Just Four Of van Gogh’s Flower Still Lifes

New York’s Metropolitan has opened a van Gogh “anti-blockbuster”. It has reunited, for the first time, four floral studies completed shortly before his death. Having so few paintings to look at leads to a more considered verdict. The colour loss in some pictures is dramatic but collectively they show qualities not always associated with this most famous of names – “intensity, modesty, and doggedness. Call them van Gogh’s secret.”