Thank you for visiting Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Museum of Art.
My name is Shôko Kobayashi, chief curator of this museum.
First of all, I would like to thank all my colleagues.
The National Gallery in London, Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam...
The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the museum Pinakothek in Munich.
This is our Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh.
Vincent painted this sunflower vase in 1888 when he was staying in Arles...
the southern part of France.
This painting was based on another Sunflowers, which is now in London.
The National Gallery in London.
Because it might be painted in autumn, around the end of November...
to the beginning of December. So the sunflower season was gone.
Besides, Vincent was a painter who needed a real model to paint from.
So he copied his own painting that was painted in the summer in 1888.
So, our Sunflowers has a yellow background.
The same as the London version. And almost the same composition.
The arrangement of flowers, leaves, petals, vase and so on.
However, when we compare the painting with the London version...
we could find some differences.
For example, the colour of the yellow background.
This background is slightly different. It is a little bit greenish.
The tone is soft and the contrast between background and flowers is not strong...
compared to the London version and also the Amsterdam version.
Besides, in this version thick matière and strong brush strokes...
cover the surface of the entire painting.
In the London version there are some parts...
in which the pigment was painted flat.
Especially the bottom part.
In his letter to his brother Theo...
Vincent mentioned he was starting with colour and brush work.
He tried to paint by colour or clair sur clair.
It means, using only clear colour to make his painting bright.
And he also tried to paint by using a variation of brushworks.
So we could say that this painting is not just a copy...
but it's one of a process of his artistic exploration.
Now, next to our Sunflowers...
you can see L'Allée des Alyscamps, Arles by Paul Gauguin.
This is part of our collection, too.
Just before Gauguin painted this work...
it was just after he arrived at Arles, at the end of October 1888...
Gauguin bought 20 metres of very rough jute for making canvasses.
Vincent and Gauguin were sharing this jute.
Ten metres for Gauguin and ten metres for Vincent.
Using this jute, Gauguin painted this painting...
L'Allée des Alyscamps, and Vincent painted that Sunflowers.
This is to say that the two paintings were painted on the same jute canvas...
by two artists when they lived together in Arles.
Our Sunflowers came to our museum...
through an auction of Christie's in March 1987 in London.
It was a commemoration for the 100-year anniversary of the company...
Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance Inc...
which was established in 1888.
It means that the company was born the same year...
when Vincent painted the Sunflowers series.
When Vincent was alive, he admired Japanese art...
for example ukiyo-e painting and he had the desire to visit Japan.
So it might be much appreciated that his Sunflowers is in Tokyo, Japan...
as part of our permanent collection. Thank you for listening.