In late summer 1887, Vincent van Gogh painted four still lifes of sunflowers during his Paris period, exploring the motif through variations in scale and composition. This work is closely related to an oil sketch as well as to other sunflower paintings from the same year, including a canvas depicting two blossoms and a larger composition with four flower heads. The two smaller works were acquired by Paul Gauguin, who valued them highly and displayed them above his bed in his Paris apartment until the mid-1890s, when he sold many of his most treasured possessions to finance his journey to the South Seas.