Artist goes virtual as Sunflowers unite for live online show

THE HAGUE - Five versions of Vincent van Gogh's masterpiece painting Sunflowers will be united across three continents for the first time on Monday via a consecutive livestream feed, the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam has said.

"On Monday ... Facebook is hosting five consecutive livestreams in which international museum directors and conservators present the version of Sunflowers in their own institution," the museum said on its website.

"Five different Sunflowers paintings will be reunited in this way for the first time in history."

The livestream video in which the participating museums will each offer their insights into the different versions of Sunflowers will begin with London's National Gallery.

Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum will follow before handing the baton to the Neue Pinakothek in Munich, with the Philadelphia Museum of Art then showing off its version.

Finally, a previously recorded video made by the Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Museum of Art in Tokyo will be played.

"For generations now, Van Gogh's Sunflowers have inspired people throughout the world," the Amsterdam museum's director Axel Rueger said.

"But because the five paintings are spread across different continents, it has never been possible to view them together.

"That has now changed. We're immensely proud of this milestone, which aligns perfectly with the Van Gogh Museum's mission: to make the life and work of Vincent van Gogh accessible," Rueger said in the statement.

The Sunflowers paintings, which rank among the Dutch master's most famous works, were painted between 1888-89 while Van Gogh was living in Arles in the south of France.

Sunflowers had a special significance for Van Gogh, who once wrote in a letter to a friend that they conveyed "gratitude".

Willem van Gogh, the great-grandson of Vincent's brother Theo van Gogh and who is an adviser to the Van Gogh Museums' administrators, also describes his personal memories of the Sunflowers in this digital exhibition.

"Each generation forms a new, highly personal bond with these works," Willem van Gogh said.

For those who cannot wait until Monday evening, the various museums have put together a virtual display on their Facebook pages where the five paintings can be viewed together in a virtual gallery, called "Sunflowers 360".

Agence France-presse