Vase of Flowers

In 1887 a young Scot called Alexander Reid was working alongside Theo van Gogh at the Paris dealers Boussod and Valadon, and had spent part of the previous winter lodging with Theo and Vincent on the Rue Lepic. Reid was one of the very few dealers then pushing Monticelli, a Marseille painter who had died the year before. He gave the brothers this bouquet, probably to seal the friendship, and Vincent recalled afterwards that they had been meaning to buy it anyway. It made six Monticellis in their collection. In January 1888 Reid put on the first exhibition of Monticelli's work in Britain, at a London gallery, and the Glasgow art crowd took to calling him Monticelli Reid. After Theo died in January 1891 the panel went to his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and stayed in the family until 1962.