In a bizarre series of incidents, two environmentalists from the organisation Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh’s most famous artwork, Sunflowers. The protestors, after throwing the soup, removed their jackets to reveal their Just Stop Oil t-shirts. They later glued themselves to the wall and began questioning the oil crisis in Britain. 

The group has been organising sit down protests for the past two weeks on roads around central London, causing issues for drivers and commuters. 

Sunflowers is one of Van Gogh’s most cherished artworks. He painted a total of five canvases with a still of sunflowers in a vase, and used nothing but three shades of yellow. Through this he aimed to depict that a painting can be made by only using various variations of a single colour. 

Van Gogh painted the series during his time in Arles in the South of France in 1888-1889. He created them in less than a week because the cold Northerly winds prevented him from working outdoors. 

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For Van Gogh, sunflowers were a depiction of gratitude. He hung the first two paintings in the room of painter Paul Gaugin. He came to live with him for a while. Gaugin upon seeing the painting was impressed and thought they were ‘completely Vincent’. 

Gaugin painted Vincent painting Sunflowers during his brief stay at the yellow house. 

Van Gogh’s period in Arles is attributed to his artworks being infused in yellow hues. The oil paints used in the paintings were made available in the early 19th century, though Van Gogh was one of the first artists to embrace them. 

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Sunflowers was acquired by National Gallery in the year 1924 through the assistance from Courtauld Fund which was specifically set up for purchase of Modern Paintings. The belief of the trustees was that Van Gogh should be represented by his signature painting in London, since they knew that Sunflowers was one of the paintings associated with his fame. The artist’s family later allowed the Gallery to purchase the painting. 

Sunflowers is one of the most popular attractions at the National Gallery, London.