This is the story of one of the world's most iconic images. Martin Bailey explains why Van Gogh painted a series of sunflower still lifes in Provence and explores the subsequent adventures of the seven pictures, and their influence on modern art. The first half of the book investigates how Van Gogh discovered the sunflower - and truly made it his own. After his arrival in Paris in 1886, he encountered the flowers growing on the slopes of Montmartre and included them in his landscapes to add touches of colour. The following year he created his first sunflower still lifes, completing four pictures with blooms lying on a table. In 1888 Van Gogh left for Provence, to settle in Arles. That summer he produced what would become his most iconic works, a series of four sunflower still lifes, with bouquets of three, six, fourteen and fifteen flowers in simple earthenware pots. He hung the two most successful pictures in the guest room of the Yellow House, to welcome his friend Gauguin.

From then onwards the story of the Sunflowers becomes entwined with Van Gogh's complex relationship with his fellow artist. Early in 1889 he made three copies of the still lifes, with Gauguin in mind. Through the Sunflowers, we can see into Van Gogh's creative process, at time when his artistic powers were at their height. The second half of the book reveals what happened to the seven 1888-89 sunflower still lifes. Van Gogh failed to sell them during his lifetime, although only a few years after his death they began to be eagerly snapped up by avant-garde collectors. The two finest versions (which once had pride of place in Gauguin's bedroom) went to galleries in London and Munich, with the others going to Tokyo, Lausanne, Ashiya, Philadelphia and Amsterdam. All the Sunflowers have had their adventures along the way. The Munich picture narrowly escaped being sold off by the Nazis and it survived the Second World War in a fairy-tale castle in the Alps.

The London painting was evacuated to a Lake District castle and a conservator then restored it using a cheese grater and a domestic iron. The mysterious Lausanne Sunflowers has always been hidden away in private collections. The Ashiya picture was destroyed on the day that the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The Tokyo painting became the world's most expensive picture in 1987 and it now hangs on the top of a skyscraper. The Philadelphia Sunflowers was owned by an artist who deliberately hung it where he could not see it. The Amsterdam version is the only one which remained with the Van Gogh family and is now the centrepiece of the museum devoted to the artist. Although much has been written about Van Gogh's life and work, much less has been published about what later happened to his paintings. Through the Sunflowers we gain fresh insights into Van Gogh's life and his path to fame.

Based on original research, the book reveals how the Arles still lifes became Van Gogh's most iconic images. All seven Sunflowers have their very different stories to tell.