By Stephanie van den Berg

AMSTERDAM - Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum has joined forces with the Danish toy brick-maker LEGO to create a build-your-own version of Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers".

Standing in front of Van Gogh's 1889 masterpiece, one of the series of sunflower paintings for which the painter is most renowned, museum curator Nienke Bakker told Reuters she hoped the LEGO version would help more people to become familiar with his life and work.

"The great thing is that people can actually build it themselves and build up a composition in a way that a painter builds up a composition," she said.

Comprising 2,615 pieces and complete with adjustable petals, the LEGO "Sunflowers" is smaller than the painting that inspires it, but still takes many hours to build. It is made up of existing brick shapes and colours with the exception of a specially-created brick with Van Gogh's signature.

Stijn Oom, a designer at the privately-held Danish company, said it had been a challenge to choose the right colours, but that Van Gogh's distinctive painting style, with visible, bold brush strokes, had lent itself to the LEGO three-dimensional model.

"It was exciting to try and kind of mimic all of the shapes in the painting with existing LEGO elements," Oom said. 

As the new set officially went on sale on Saturday, Dutch fan Rienke Witmer, who got up at five in the morning and put on a dress with sunflower fabric, was first in line at Amsterdam's LEGO store, with her husband and two children.

"I like LEGO, and I like art, so it's a good combination," Witmer told Reuters. Once she has built her version of "Sunflowers", she said she planned to give it pride of place in her home.

"I'll hang it up in the room, so I can look at it every day," she said.

(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg and Bart Biesemans; editing by Barbara Lewis)