Jānis Ferdinands Tīdemanis (1897–1964), known in Riga’s bohemian circles as “Džonis,” was a prominent Latvian painter and master colourist with an unrestrained temperament. Born in Ventspils, he went to sea in his youth and eventually reached the United States, but after World War I he returned to Latvia and, in the early 1920s, studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, where his manner was shaped by Flemish Expressionism. In the 1930s Tīdemanis exhibited widely in Latvia and across Europe, gained recognition in Belgium, and created murals for the Latvian pavilion at the 1935 World’s Fair. In 1936 he settled in Riga, becoming one of the central figures of the city’s bohemian art life. At the end of World War II he went into exile, living in Germany, Switzerland, and Canada; he died in Toronto. In his art, Tīdemanis is distinguished by a blazing play of colour, sharp contrasts, and a virtuosic, rapid brushstroke. He painted still lifes, landscapes, portraits, and figurative compositions, often employing grotesque elements and deformation to heighten psychological tension and to explore relationships between people and their environment. His sense of colour and expressive vitality later influenced Latvian colourists such as Jānis Pauļuks and Leo Svemps. Sunflowers is a very rare and, to date, previously unseen work by Jānis Ferdinands Tīdemanis