Vincent van Gogh painted "Irises" in the last year of his life, in the garden of the asylum at Saint-Remy, where he was recuperating from an attack of mental illness. Although he considered the painting more a study than a finished picture, his brother Theo submitted it to the Salon des Independants in September 1889. Its energy and theme--the regenerative powers of the earth--express the artist's deeply held belief in the divinity of art and nature.This groundbreaking book fills a gap in Van Gogh scholarship with an in-depth study of "Irises"--among the J. Paul Getty Museum's most famous paintings--placed in the context of his glorious flower and garden paintings. Full-color reproductions include not only "Irises," but also a panoply of nature paintings by Van Gogh and the artists who inspired him, such as Albrecht Durer, Leonardo da Vinci, Claude Monet, and Paul Gauguin.