Vincent van Gogh Sunflowers Men's Socks

Radiant golds, deep crimsons, and verdant greens pop with aplomb in Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers, which has been intricately recreated in these charming novelty socks. The cotton/polyester blend, reinforced toe seam and stretchy top band are sure to keep feet warm and comfortable, making these socks the perfect gift for the art enthusiast on the move.

About the Painting:  While he waited for Paul Gauguin to join him in the Provençal city of Arles in 1888, Vincent van Gogh painted five audaciously decorative still lifes of sunflowers in simple earthenware jugs. At least two of these canvases decorated Gauguin's bedroom when he reached the city late in October, and the French painter came to admire them greatly. Always defensive about the tragic outcome of his stay--it ended with Van Gogh's self-mutilation and madness--Gauguin later claimed that the sunflower paintings directly reflected his own good advice, generously offered in Arles, that his Dutch friend avoid monotony by adding "bugle notes" of brilliant color to his paintings. Whether the Philadelphia Sunflowers precedes Gauguin's visit or is one of two replicas Van Gogh painted the following year, it is an explosion of brilliant color and agitated outlines the twelve flowers as full of angular energy and as vital and vivid in personality as the artist who painted them.

Christopher Riopelle, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995), p. 207.

• Material 50% cotton, 48% nylon, 2% spandex
• Seamless toe
• Mens sock size 10 - 13
• Fits U.S. Mens shoe size 6 - 12.5
• Machine wash in cold water inside out, without bleach, and tumble dry low; do not iron