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LEGO Unveils Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers with Hidden Art Surprise

by Matthew Apr 09,2025

The first thing to know about the LEGO Art Vincent van Gogh – Sunflowers set is its impressive size. At 21 inches high and 16 inches wide, it's approximately 60% the size of the original painting. This makes it large enough to be unwieldy when you're picking it up, but perfect for displaying as a piece of art in your home.

LEGO Art Vincent van Gogh – Sunflowers

$199.99 at LEGO Store

This set is designed to be taken seriously. It's not just a tribute to one of the world's most famous artworks; it's also meant to be hung up in your living space as a piece of art. This reflects LEGO's ongoing evolution from an adult curiosity to a respected adult hobby.

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Vincent van Gogh painted his iconic series of Sunflowers while living in Arles, France, during a prolific period of his artistic career. He had a deep emotional connection to the sunflower, associating it with gratitude. In a letter to a friend, he wrote:

"If [Georges] Jeannin has the peony, [Ernest] Quost the hollyhock, I indeed, before others, have taken the sunflower."

In August 1888, van Gogh created four versions of sunflowers in a vase. He revisited this motif in January 1889, painting a repetition of the third version and two different repetitions of the fourth version.

Of these seven paintings, the fourth version and its two repetitions are the most renowned. The original fourth version (F454) is on display at the National Gallery in London, England. One repetition (F457) can be seen at the Sompo Museum of Art in Tokyo, Japan. The other repetition (F458), likely the most iconic due to its vibrant color composition, is showcased at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The Van Gogh Museum, established in 1973, collaborated with LEGO to create the LEGO Vincent van Gogh - Sunflowers set, which pays homage to the F458 repetition. This set is designed as a three-dimensional relief, using abstract pieces to replicate van Gogh's distinctive thick brushstrokes.

When you open the box, you'll find 34 numbered bags and a printed instruction booklet with a QR code. Scanning this code leads you to a podcast that delves into van Gogh and the inspirations behind his work.

I appreciated the set's real-world practicality. You begin by building the painting's frame, which you can lean against the wall while you work on the canvas. The canvas, complete with the painting, is built next and then mounted into the frame and secured with pins. This process mimics the real-life staging and presentation of art, giving the completed set a sense of value and importance.

There's a delightful Easter egg hidden in the canvas's construction. Art experts discovered that van Gogh extended the height of the canvas with a wooden strip at the top during the painting process, to give the sunflowers more space. LEGO playfully incorporated this detail by having you build the canvas and then attach a separate strip at the top with pins. You can see it circled in red in the photo below, and LEGO even used brown bricks to mimic the appearance of wood.

This detail is subtle and unnecessary for the final product, yet it's what makes it so special. It's a hidden feature that only the builder would know about, adding a layer of exclusivity and a sense of the trial and error that even a master like van Gogh experienced. You can choose whether to reveal this secret when showing off your creation.

Building the full-bloom sunflowers can be a bit tedious, but it's unavoidable if you want to achieve the convincing look. The repetitiveness mirrors van Gogh's own dedication to his craft. Take breaks and enjoy the process; this is not a set you rush through.

I particularly enjoyed building the wilting flowers and those in profile. At first, they seemed abstract and random, but stepping back revealed their true form as stems and leaves within the context of the painting.

The most common question I get from other adults is, "After you build a LEGO set, where do you put it?" With this set, the answer is clear: on my dining room wall. This is a set you can look forward to displaying long after you've finished building it. A week after completing it, I still find myself enjoying the three-dimensional details that catch my eye each time.

This is the first great LEGO set of 2025, and it comes highly recommended. The LEGO Vincent van Gogh - Sunflowers, Set #31215, retails for $199.99 and comprises 2615 pieces. It is available exclusively at the LEGO Store.