From 1880 to 1885, when Vincent van Gogh was moving from town to town in the Netherlands, he began working as an artist in earnest. His cousin-in-law Anton Mauve was a Dutch realist painter and a leading member of The Hague School, and the young Van Gogh studied his work. He also looked closely at paintings by the great Dutch masters. Van Gogh’s first works were executed in dark, earthy tones, but when his brother, Theo, remarked that they were too somber, he began to use brighter hues. In 1887, Van Gogh moved to Paris and started painting still lifes of flowers. Among these were seven versions of sunflowers in a vase of gold, which he titled Sunflowers. This exhibition presents 25 Van Gogh still lifes, paired with works by 44 artists (from the 17th to the early–20th centuries) that may have influenced him. —Elena Clavarino