The painting that I chose to my report on was Irises by the Dutch painter, Vincent Van
Gogh. This painting was painted in the year of 1889 during the Post-impressionist movement
(Museum Plaque). It’s size is 2’4” by 3’1” and it is an oil on canvas piece. I went to the Getty
Center on September 27th to view this painting. It was my favorite one there because the colors
really stood out to me. It depicts a nature scene that has blue irises, a single white iris, and
marigolds. It is arranged in a way that looks like the flowers are being pushed up against the
view of the painting. In this paper, I will discuss the elements of this painting, the life of Vincent
Van Gogh, and the context of what is being shown.
Irises displays a wide…show more content… In terms of Van
Gogh’s Irises, this fits into the category because all the flowers are unified by being flowers,
while the different species of flowers is what gives them variety. The second principle is balance.
The specific type of balance being shown is asymmetrical balance, which means that even
though the painting isn’t symmetrical, each side has equal visual weight (Lecture). There is a
large amount of dark blue irises on the right side, while the left side is more barren and lightly
colored. This contrast of light and dark colors is what gives Irises asymmetrical balance. The
final principle is emphasis and subordination. Emphasis in a painting is the area that catches the
viewers eye the most. The focal point of the painting is the area with the most emphasis
(Lecture). Irises’ focal point are the blue irises. Their dark blue colors in contrast of the green
back round is what gives it the most emphasis. Unlike emphasis, subordination is the area that
visually stands out the least. The areas that have the most subordination in this painting are the
marigolds and the earth match in the bottom left corner. Since these areas are lighter than