Le Tournesol (The Sunflower) by Edward Steichen

Edward Steichen, Sunflower in a White Vase, from the series Sunflowers from Seed to Seed, 1920-1961, photograph, reproduced with permission of Joanna T. Steichen

Le Tournesol may be Steichen's only sunflower painting, but his fascination with this plant is evident in the numerous photographic studies he made in the 1920s. He photographed Sunflower in a White Vase at this time.

Almost twenty years earlier, Steichen had been impressed with other sunflowers: the painted still lifes of Vincent van Gogh. In 1901, he visited an exhibition of Van Gogh's work, which left a deep impression on him. He returned to the exhibition the next day, noting later that "three pictures of the now celebrated sunflower series made a particular and dramatic appeal to me."