The Secret Life of Sunflowers Summary: Jo Bonger’s Legacy
Introduction
A blue Tiffany’s box, handed over in a stroke care center, holds a green diary written in English and a stack of yellowed Dutch letters.
That box passes from famous New York artist Violet Velar to her granddaughter Emsley Wilson, an auctioneer whose Hollywood business is collapsing.
The Secret Life of Sunflowers by Marta Molnar moves between two women in two centuries.
In the 1880s and 1890s, Johanna Bonger marries Theo van Gogh and inherits an unsellable collection of his brother Vincent’s paintings.
In the present day, Emsley reads Johanna’s diary while trying to save her auction house and understand her own family’s history.
Who Will Enjoy This Book? Readers of dual-timeline historical fiction, art-world stories, and biographical novels about overlooked women.
š Watch on YouTube: The Secret Life Of Sunflowers SummaryĀ
TL;DR: The Short Version
- Two timelines, one thread: A modern auctioneer and a 19th-century Dutch widow are connected by Vincent van Gogh’s unsold canvases.
- Historical arc: Johanna Bonger loses her husband Theo months after Vincent’s death, then spends years editing letters and organizing exhibitions to prove Vincent’s genius.
- Modern arc: Emsley Wilson inherits a Greenwich Village brownstone, a basement carousel, and a business ultimatum from her ex-partner Trey.
- Central themes: Women’s agency, artistic legacy, grief, and adaptability.
- Structure: 32 alternating chapters, an epilogue, and an author’s note.
The Secret Life of Sunflowers Summary
Spoiler warning: The following section describes the plot, including the ending.
The Historical Thread: Johanna Bonger
In 1887 Amsterdam, twenty-four-year-old Johanna Bonger wants a life beyond marriage and housekeeping. She applies for a teaching post in Utrecht and nurses feelings for a man named Eduard.
Theo van Gogh, an art dealer from Paris and a friend of her brother Dries, visits the Bonger home and proposes to her. Jo refuses because of Eduard.
Eduard ignores her entirely. By December 1888, Jo travels to Paris and seeks Theo out at Goupil & Cie to repair a rift between Theo and Dries.
Theo shows her the city and confesses his feelings have not changed. On Christmas Eve he proposes a second time, and Jo accepts.
Hours later, a telegram arrives: Vincent has suffered a violent breakdown in Arles and has cut off his ear. Theo rushes south.
Theo and Jo marry in April 1889 and settle into a fourth-floor apartment on Cite Pigalle, filled with Vincent’s sunflower canvases. In February 1890 their son, Vincent Willem, called Wil, is born.
Vincent visits that May and gifts the baby a painting of almond blossoms. He leaves for Auvers-sur-Oise and shoots himself there two months later, dying on July 29, 1890.
Theo’s health collapses under grief. He descends into psychosis, and Dries insists on committing him despite Jo’s pleas. Theo dies in a Utrecht clinic in January 1891, leaving Jo a penniless widow at twenty-eight with an infant.
Dries and several art dealers urge Jo to burn Vincent’s unsold canvases, which they consider worthless. She refuses, calling the work the embodiment of Theo’s life.
Jo moves to Bussum and opens a boardinghouse called Villa Helma to support herself and Wil. She edits, organizes, and translates Vincent’s 700 letters to Theo into a readable narrative of his life.
In The Hague, the artist Richard Roland Holst offers to scrape the paint off Vincent’s canvases so the wood can be reused. Jo leaves and decides to act as Vincent’s agent herself.
She writes to Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam. In January 1892, director Daan de Jong agrees to host Vincent’s first major retrospective after Jo unpacks The Starry Night, Blossoming Almond Tree, and Sunflowers in front of him.
The exhibition is a critical triumph, and Jo secures further placements in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Vincent van Gogh’s path to global fame begins with her work.
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The Modern Thread: Emsley Wilson
Emsley Wilson runs Ludington’s, a Los Angeles auction house serving Hollywood political fundraisers, with her partner Trey. Trey has been cheating on her with her former best friend Diya, and the partnership is breaking apart.
Emsley’s grandmother, the artist Violet Velar, suffers a stroke in New York. Before Violet dies, she hands Emsley a blue Tiffany’s box containing Jo Bonger’s diary and letters, plus a small painting of a swaddled baby on a bed.
Violet also leaves behind a Greenwich Village brownstone she has already sold. Estate attorney Bram Dekker Jr. helps Emsley pack the house, and they find a thirty-foot vintage carousel in the basement.
Trey gives Emsley thirty days to buy him out for $1.2 million or shut the business down. Diya sells her twenty percent stake to Trey, giving him majority control.
The brownstone buyer later backs out of the contract, leaving Emsley without funds for the buyout or Violet’s stroke center bills.
Bram’s grandfather, Bram Sr., reveals that at a 1965 Vanderbilt party he saw Violet emerge from a library disheveled and bleeding. The man responsible was Taylor Wertheim, then a junior senator from Massachusetts.
Emsley identifies Wertheim through old party photographs and confronts him at his Manhattan apartment. She negotiates a payment plan with the stroke center and later, at Violet’s funeral, Bram Sr. trips Wertheim into the open grave.
Antique dealer Sergei Prokhorov, Bram Jr.’s cousin, authenticates the carousel as a rare 1918 Allan Herschell and Daniel Muller piece worth mid-six figures.
Emsley pitches a small-investor buyout to Bram Jr., Bram Sr., Sergei, the performance artist Strena, and a friend. They pledge $600,000, and Emsley counters Trey by keeping the Ludington’s brand for a New York office while giving him the LA branch.
Strena, a sugar artist who works from Violet’s top-floor studio, recruits Emsley as a last-minute model for a MoMA performance. Emsley stands on stage painted in golden sugar as the sword Excalibur, and the show succeeds.
Strena agrees to rent the brownstone’s lower gallery floors long-term, and the carousel sells for $950,000.
Emsley learns from her mother that Violet’s grandmother was Clara Bakker, Jo Bonger’s niece, who traveled with Jo to New York in 1914. That makes Emsley Jo Bonger’s great-great-great-grandniece.
Sergei authenticates the small “ugly baby” painting as an original Vincent van Gogh depicting his stillborn older brother. Emsley keeps the brownstone, converts the fourth floor into the Violet Velar Museum, and launches benefit auctions for stroke research.
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Summary by Chapter
Spoiler warning: This section outlines each chapter.
The book contains 32 chapters, plus a dedication, an epilogue, and an author’s note.
Chapter 1: Emsley ā Emsley visits Violet at a New York stroke center, where Violet gives her a blue Tiffany’s box holding Dutch letters and a green diary. On the way to the airport, Trey texts that Ludington’s must close.
Chapter 2: Johanna ā 1887, Amsterdam ā Jo Bonger watches her family play marriage divination games and applies for a teaching post in Utrecht. Theo van Gogh arrives unannounced and proposes during a canal walk; Jo refuses because she loves Eduard.
Chapter 3: Emsley ā Emsley runs a Beverly Hills benefit auction while Trey and Diya, now dating, push her to sell. Trey demands a $1 million buyout within thirty days; Emsley raises nearly $1 million for Senator Rutger and calls Violet about the diary.
Chapter 4: Johanna ā 1888, Scheveningen ā Jo recovers at a seaside resort with her friend Anna after a depressive illness in Utrecht. Eduard ignored her completely, and Theo writes her regular letters about art and books; Anna urges Jo to visit Paris for Christmas.
Chapter 5: Emsley ā Violet suffers a second stroke, and Emsley flies to New York. Diya reveals she sold her stake to Trey for $200,000, and Emsley finds a small painting of a swaddled baby in the blue box.
Chapter 6: Johanna ā 1888, Paris ā Jo seeks Theo outside Goupil & Cie to heal the rift with Dries. Theo tours her through Paris, they meet Edgar Degas, and Theo confesses his devotion.
Chapter 7: Emsley ā Violet dies, leaving Emsley a pair of sunflower earrings she ordered before her death. At the brownstone, Emsley and Bram Dekker Jr. discover a thirty-foot vintage carousel in the basement.
Chapter 8: Johanna ā 1888, December 24 ā Theo proposes again on Christmas Eve and Jo accepts, though Dries and Annie respond coolly. A telegram announces Vincent’s breakdown in Arles, and news follows that he cut off his ear.
Chapter 9: Emsley ā Emsley finds Strena creating body art with melted red sugar on the fourth floor. The realtor warns that the buyer wants to close by the end of May, and Strena gives Emsley a hatbox of Violet’s photographs and clippings.
Chapter 10: Johanna ā 1889, Paris ā Jo and Theo marry in Amsterdam and honeymoon for one day in Brussels before settling on Cite Pigalle. Theo explains that Vincent painted sunflowers in Arles as an expression of gratitude and light.
Chapter 11: Emsley ā Bram Jr. brings breakfast and they examine Violet’s study, where Emsley talks about her parents’ legal troubles. The buyer pushes closing to May, and Strena invites Emsley to watch a sugarworks performance.
Chapter 12: Johanna ā 1890, May 17, Paris ā Vincent visits from the Saint-Remy asylum and meets baby Wil. He gifts the infant a canvas of almond blossoms, argues art with Theo for three days, then leaves for Auvers-sur-Oise.
Chapter 13: Emsley ā Bram Sr. recalls Violet’s gallery openings and confirms the carousel was her last project. He denies being Emsley’s biological grandfather but describes seeing Violet emerge bleeding from a Vanderbilt library in 1965.
Chapter 14: Johanna ā 1890, July ā Vincent shoots himself in a field at Auvers and dies two days later. Jo returns to Paris to comfort Theo, who plans a retrospective before suffering a breakdown marked by fever and howling.
Chapter 15: Emsley ā Emsley strips the velvet drapes from Violet’s bedroom and sorts the hatbox photographs. Searching images of the 1965 Vanderbilt party, she identifies Taylor Wertheim, a still-living former Massachusetts senator.
Chapter 16: Johanna ā 1890, October, Paris ā Theo’s psychosis worsens and he locks himself away, refusing food and medicine. Dries insists on institutionalization, and Theo is committed to the Maison Dubois despite Jo’s tears.
Chapter 17: Emsley ā Violet’s funeral features a carnival band, beer, and a carousel in the parking lot, and Mrs. Yang smuggles a chick named Lai Fa into Emsley’s bag. Wertheim attends, and Bram Sr. trips him into the open grave.
Chapter 18: Johanna ā 1891, Utrecht ā Theo is moved in a straitjacket to the Willem Arntzkliniek. Jo travels weekly from Amsterdam, and on her final visit the doctor refuses entry after Theo flew into a rage at news of her arrival.
Chapter 19: Emsley ā Bram Jr. connects Emsley with a corporate lawyer after the cemetery incident. Strena shows her Violet’s painting Excalibur at the MoMA, and the realtor reveals the brownstone buyer has backed out.
Chapter 20: Johanna ā 1891, January 25 ā The doctor at the Utrecht clinic tells Jo that Theo died that morning. Jo wanders the streets near the Dom Tower, realizing she is a penniless widow with an infant and hundreds of disputed canvases.
Chapter 21: Emsley ā Sergei identifies the carousel as a rare 1918 Allan Herschell and Daniel Muller piece worth mid-six figures. He also reveals that Bram Jr.’s wife died two years ago and that Bram only removed his wedding ring after meeting Emsley.
Chapter 22: Johanna ā 1891, February, Paris ā Dries urges Jo to burn Vincent’s canvases and return to their parents’ home. Jo refuses, and when the landlord demands rent, she resolves to move to Bussum and open a boardinghouse.
Chapter 23: Emsley ā Emsley pitches a small-investor buyout at the brownstone, and her group pledges $600,000 when Trey arrives demanding a full handover. She counters by offering Trey $600,000 for the LA branch while keeping the Ludington’s brand.
Chapter 24: Johanna ā 1891, August, Bussum ā Jo runs Villa Helma and raises Wil with Anna’s support. After Goupil rejects her, she decides to edit and translate Vincent’s 700 letters and approach Dutch gatekeepers, starting with Richard Roland Holst.
Chapter 25: Emsley ā Bram Jr. cancels dinner to take Bram Sr. to the emergency room, and he and Emsley talk for hours by phone. Trey proposes marriage and a merger, which Emsley rejects, and Strena recruits her as a replacement MoMA model.
Chapter 26: Johanna ā 1891, October, The Hague ā Jo carries Vincent’s canvases, framed by the carpenter Janus, to The Hague. Roland Holst offers only to scrape the paint for reusable wood, and Jo vows to represent Vincent herself.
Chapter 27: Emsley ā Sergei’s crew removes the carousel, and Emsley confronts Wertheim at his apartment. She negotiates a payment plan with the stroke center, spends a night with Bram Jr., and learns that Jo Bonger stayed in New York in 1914 with her niece Clara Bakker.
Chapter 28: Johanna ā 1891, November, Bussum ā Jo hosts Dutch artists and intellectuals at Villa Helma and demonstrates her efficient household routine. She announces that she will act as Vincent’s agent and writes to Arti et Amicitiae.
Chapter 29: Emsley ā Emsley performs at the MoMA painted in golden sugar as Excalibur, and the show succeeds. Strena offers to rent the lower floors, and Emsley confirms through her mother that Clara Bakker was her great-grandmother.
Chapter 30: Johanna ā 1891, December, Amsterdam ā Jo hires street boys to carry crates of canvases to Arti et Amicitiae. She unpacks The Starry Night, Blossoming Almond Tree, and Sunflowers for director Daan de Jong, who agrees to host an exhibition.
Chapter 31: Emsley ā Bram Sr. admits he confronted the wrong man years ago and that Wertheim kept Violet’s wrap. Sergei reports a $950,000 offer on the carousel, and Emsley decides to keep the brownstone and open a New York branch.
Chapter 32: Johanna ā 1892, January, Amsterdam ā Jo takes two-year-old Wil to Vincent’s first retrospective, which draws crowds and praising reporters. She secures further gallery placements, fulfilling her promise to Theo.
Epilogue: Emsley ā On the first anniversary of Violet’s death, the group gathers at her grave. Emsley reports a thriving New York office, a $100,000 stroke research auction, and Mrs. Yang’s marriage to Louis; Sergei presents the authenticated van Gogh baby painting.
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Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Emsley Wilson | Hollywood auctioneer who inherits Violet’s brownstone and Johanna Bonger’s diary. |
| Violet Velar | Emsley’s grandmother, a New York artist who leaves behind the diary and a sold brownstone. |
| Bram Dekker Jr. | Violet’s estate attorney, a widower who assists Emsley and becomes her partner. |
| Bram Dekker Sr. | Bram’s grandfather and Violet’s longtime friend and former attorney. |
| Strena (Suugarworks) | Performance artist who works from Violet’s top-floor studio. |
| Sergei Prokhorov | Bram Jr.’s cousin, an antique dealer who authenticates and sells the carousel. |
| Trey | Emsley’s ex-boyfriend and business partner who demands a buyout of Ludington’s. |
| Diya | Emsley’s former best friend and business partner who becomes involved with Trey. |
| Anna Wilson (Johanna Velar) | Emsley’s mother and Violet’s estranged daughter. |
| Taylor Wertheim | Former Massachusetts senator who assaulted Violet in 1965. |
| Mrs. Yang and Louis | Violet’s friends at the stroke center; Mrs. Yang smuggles in the chick Lai Fa. |
| Lai Fa | A yellow chick smuggled out of the healthcare facility who stays with Emsley. |
| Johanna (Jo) Bonger | Dutch woman who marries Theo van Gogh and promotes Vincent’s art after both brothers die. |
| Theo van Gogh | Vincent’s brother, a Goupil art dealer and Jo’s husband. |
| Vincent van Gogh | Theo’s brother, the painter whose letters and canvases drive the historical storyline. |
| Andries (Dries) Bonger | Jo’s brother and Theo’s friend, who urges Jo to burn Vincent’s canvases. |
| Anna Dirk (Veth) | Jo’s lifelong best friend who provides support and shelter in Bussum. |
| Jan Veth | Anna’s husband, a painter and critic who encourages Jo to act as Vincent’s agent. |
| Vincent Willem (Wil) van Gogh | Jo and Theo’s son, born in 1890. |
| Janus | Bussum carpenter who frames Vincent’s canvases. |
| Daan de Jong | Director of Arti et Amicitiae who agrees to host Vincent’s retrospective. |
| Richard Roland Holst | The Hague artist who offers to scrape Vincent’s canvases for reusable wood. |
| Clara Bakker | Jo’s niece who travels with her to New York in 1914 and becomes Emsley’s great-grandmother. |
What Drives the Story
| Theme | How the Book Presents It |
|---|---|
| Women’s Agency and Resilience | Jo refuses the advice of her brother and established art dealers and represents Vincent herself. Emsley refuses Trey’s demand to surrender Ludington’s and builds a new investor group instead. |
| Legacy and Artistic Preservation | Jo edits, organizes, and translates 700 letters and arranges Vincent’s first retrospective in Amsterdam in 1892. Violet leaves her brownstone contents, photographs, and museum plans to Emsley. |
| Adaptability and Growth | Violet tells Emsley that sunflowers grow in poor soil and flower bigger the worse the conditions. Jo opens a boardinghouse after Theo’s death, and Emsley rebuilds her business after the partnership collapses. |
| Grief, Trauma, and Healing | Theo’s health fails after Vincent’s death and he dies in a Utrecht clinic. Emsley mourns Violet, and Bram Jr. rebuilds his life after his wife’s sudden death. |
| Family Secrets and Hidden Histories | The diary leads Emsley to Clara Bakker and confirms her descent from Jo Bonger’s family. Violet’s 1965 assault stays concealed until Bram Sr. describes it decades later. |
Books Like The Secret Life of Sunflowers
The Collector’s Daughter by Gill Paul ā A dual-timeline novel about a real historical woman, Lady Evelyn Herbert, and a modern search for her legacy. It shares the structure of a contemporary narrator uncovering a documented past.
The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith ā Follows a Dutch female painter and a contested canvas across centuries. It shares the art-world focus and the theme of a woman excluded from the art establishment.
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn ā Three women navigate institutional barriers and hidden secrets across interlinked timelines. It matches the novel’s emphasis on female friendship and resilience.
The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles ā Alternates between a historical crisis and a modern narrator uncovering the past. It shares the theme of preserving art and knowledge under pressure.
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier ā A fictional account of a woman inside a Dutch painter’s household. It shares the Dutch art setting and the focus on a woman’s limited options.
The Van Gogh Woman by Marta Molnar ā A companion title in the same Light & Life series by the same author, continuing the historical art-world focus.
Loving Vincent related nonfiction: Van Gogh’s Letters ā The collected correspondence between Vincent and Theo van Gogh that Jo Bonger edited and translated in the novel.
Book Details at a Glance
- Genre & Subgenre: Historical Fiction; Dual-Timeline Women’s Fiction; Biographical Fiction
- Core Narrative Tropes: Dual timelines, hidden historical figure, art-world mystery, slow-burn romance, grandmother-granddaughter mentorship, female empowerment against institutional gatekeeping
- Tone & Atmosphere: Vibrant, emotionally intense, witty, poignant, and uplifting
- Primary Conflict: Emsley must raise $1.2 million in thirty days to keep her auction house while grieving Violet; Jo must overcome grief, poverty, and male gatekeeping to win recognition for Vincent van Gogh
- Pacing Style: Alternating past and present chapters that mirror emotional beats and realizations
- ISBN: 1940627524 (ISBN-10); 978-1940627526 (ISBN-13)
- Pages: 356
- Book Structure: 32 chapters, a dedication, an epilogue, and an author’s note; Book 1 of 3 in the Light & Life Series
Quotes from The Secret Life of Sunflowers
“If you hear a voice within say you cannot do something, then by all means do that thing, and that voice will be silenced.”
“Sunflowers will tire of the sun before I tire of you, Johanna Bonger.”
“Being a strong, independent woman who speaks the truth is a revolutionary act in this world.”
“You succeed by not failing.”
“I imagine happiness like needlepoint. Dots of color, precious moments placed next to each other as time passes, small joys doled out over a lifetime.”
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