The Flowery Painting is one of many art pieces players can collect in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The Animal Crossing franchise —published by Nintendo, which has American subsidiaries in Washington—has an extensive list of paintings deriving from real-world counterparts. Paintings can be used for decoration but are also important pieces for the island’s Museum. Many players aspire to complete the Museum’s art gallery. Here is what you need to know about the Flowery Painting.
The Flowery Painting in Animal Crossing
The Flowery Painting is an art piece introduced in Doubutsu no Mori for the Nintendo 64, the first game in the Animal Crossing series. It has been featured in every title since its debut. In New Horizons, unlike some of the other paintings, the Flowery Painting lacks a forged variant. This negates the need to authenticate it for donation purposes. It is one of two Vincent van Gogh paintings to appear in the series, the other being the Twinkling Painting. The Flowery Painting can be bought for 4,980 Bells and sold for 1,245 Bells. When the painting has been donated to the Museum, the player can read its placard and discover the following description:
“Van Gogh painted this piece when he moved to the south of France in search of more vibrant colors. Yellow was Van Gogh’s favorite color, and he made seven paintings that featured sunflowers during this time.”
As the description states, the Flowery Painting is based on van Gogh’s famous work, Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers. The 1888 oil on canvas painting was part of a series of pieces of sunflowers that van Gogh attempted. His stated reasoning for wanting to finish this series was “Because the flowers wilt quickly and it’s a matter of doing the whole thing in one go.” Unfortunately, he could not complete the entire set before the seasons changed. Despite this, Still Life demonstrates van Gogh’s unparalleled abilities with composition that blends realism with symbolist qualities. The work is a testament to his skills as an artist, even when his life was embroiled in mental health battles.
