A walkthrough of Vincent van Gogh’s sunflower-filled Yellow House

There are few artists as connected to a single image as Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh is linked to Sunflowers. 

Over the course of his all-too-brief career, he painted many variations of this charismatic flower to bring a little brightness to his home in Arles.  

For over a century, these paintings have continued to brighten up the lives of millions of people, and recently they even became a LEGO® Art set. 

To celebrate the launch of this set, our designers created a large-scale installation based on this house that explores the different phases Vincent van Gogh went through while he lived there. The installation will be presented at The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.  

To find out more, we spoke to Lubor Zelinka, Design Manager Specialist at LEGO Model Production, and to René van Blerk, Curator of Education & Interpretation at The Van Gogh Museum.

Welcome to Van Gogh’s Yellow House

Before we talk about the details, we asked René to give us a brief introduction to the Yellow House and what it meant to Vincent van Gogh. 

“Vincent wanted to get out of the busy city life he’d been leading,” says René about the artist’s time in bustling Paris. 

“He’d been thinking for months about going to the south of France where he hoped to find not only sunshine but also color and light.” 

And so, he bought a one-way train ticket, packed his few belongings and made the journey south where he started looking for a new place to live and work. 

“The Yellow House is the place where he rented rooms to use as a studio,” continues René. 

But it soon became much more than this. 

“It’s the place where his famous sunflower paintings were created. Vincent makes several different versions of sunflowers in a vase, initially with the idea to decorate his studio in the Yellow House.” 

Recreating the past through research

The immersive LEGO brick installation of the Yellow House honors Vincent van Gogh’s legacy through five rooms exploring his art, relationships and creative journey. It guides visitors through his initial arrival in Arles, his creation of the sunflower paintings, and his important friendship with artist Paul Gauguin. 

The design process of this exhibit began with a period of research in close collaboration with The Van Gogh Museum. 

“Since the Yellow House no longer exists, and there’s little documentation for some of the rooms, these discussions were particularly helpful for the rooms where no paintings or other documentation exist,” says Lubor. “The details there are based on other paintings recommended by the Van Gogh Museum – for example, the chair there is modeled after the painting titled Gauguin’s Chair.”

Designing an intricate set on this scale had its challenges, especially trying to maintain the style of such a distinct artist. 

“I’d say the hardest thing was to stay true to the style of Van Gogh, while keeping LEGO design DNA and working within the limits of the scale chosen,” says Lubor. “Even though the model is large, the individual rooms are in fact not that spacious. For example, most of the characters’ heads are only seven bricks wide, so we needed to find the right stylization and elements to capture their facial expressions. The heads and some other small details were built with many special elements for this reason, while the rest of the model is mostly brick-built to keep the unique LEGO brick look.” 

Details hidden deep in the design

After completing the outline of the model, Lubor and his team found clever ways to make sure that sunflowers were included around the design. 

“We had fun sneaking sunflowers into each of the rooms!” he jokes. “In the second room, Vincent van Gogh reads a book with a sunflower mosaic, and stylized flowers are also on the room walls. The third and fourth rooms feature four more sunflower paintings that we designed.”

Your chance to visit the Yellow House

The real Yellow House is, unfortunately, no longer standing, so this installation offers art lovers a unique chance to experience it. 

If you’re a fan of Vincent van Gogh or want to learn more about the artist and his work, you can see it at The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam from June 19, 2025. 

And if you’re looking to bring a little brightness to your own home, you can follow Vincent van Gogh’s lead and decorate your walls with sunflowers in the LEGO Art Vincent van Gogh – Sunflowers set.