Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers

However, he later wrote to Theo:'My face has lit up after all a lot since, but it was indeed me, extremely tired and charged with electricity as I was then.'The scene is depicted from above, with all its essential components cut off by the edge of the canvas: the painter himself, his palette and easel, and the table with the vase of sunflowers. Gauguin painted his friend’s likeness on burlap, applying the relatively dry paint in a thin layer. When viewed close up, we can clearly see the rough, grainy structure of the surface.