In May 1889, Vincent van Gogh voluntarily entered an asylum in Saint-Rémy, France, where he produced nearly 130 paintings in the final year of his life. One of the first works he began there was Irises, painted directly from the flowers in the asylum garden. With its bold, cropped composition and sweeping areas of vivid color, the scene feels almost like a decorative pattern—an effect often linked to van Gogh’s admiration for Japanese woodblock prints. This iconic floral masterpiece captures both the immediacy of painting from nature and the striking, modern design sensibility that made van Gogh’s late work so unforgettable.