In May 1890, just before Van Gogh was released from the asylum in Saint-Rémy, he wrote his brother that he was "doing . . . two canvases representing big bunches of violet irises, one lot against a pink background . . . the other . . . against a startling citron background, so it is an effect of tremendously disparate complementaries, which strengthen each other by their juxtaposition." The first picture described is the Museum's Irises, the background of which has faded considerably; the second is in the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam.