Van Gogh Irises
Espresso cups

Vincent van Gogh espresso cups

This set of two porcelain espresso cups is decorated with fragments from the masterpiece Irises by Vincent Van Gogh. These espresso cups are specifically designed for the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Irises

During 1888 and 1889, Vincent van Gogh lived in Arles, southern France, where he also painted the famous painting Irises. Van Gogh started painting Irises within a week of entering the asylum, in May 1889, working from nature in the hospital garden. There is a lack of the high tension which is seen in his later works. He called painting "the lightning conductor for my illness" because he felt that he could keep himself from going insane by continuing to paint. When this painting was auctioned by Sotheby's on November 11, 1987, it was with a record price of 53,9 mio. dollar the most expensive painitng in teh world! 

About the painter Van Gogh

Van Gogh was born in the Netherlands and would later live in Paris and other places in France. He did not have such a happy life and people in his lifetime disliked his beautiful paintings. In all his life, he managed to sell only one of his paintings. He earned no money and remained forever dependent on his parents and brother Theo. He takes to drink and is eventually admitted to a psychiatric hospital. In 1890, he decided - on advice of his doctor - to concentrate on painting and he made his final series: On July 29, 1890 Vincent van Gogh dies and leaves behind more than 850 paintings and nearly 1,300 works on paper.