Still Life with Plaster Statuette a Rose and Two Novels

Vincent van Gogh

Contemporary-Art.org
Keywords: LifePlasterStatuetteRoseNovels

Work Overview

Still Life with Plaster Statuette, a Rose and Two Novels
1887
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo 


Still Life with French Novels and a Rose is a painting with a number of novels with bindings of contrasting colors: green against pink and red. The books are meant to represent seven Parisian novels Van Gogh owned,[51] that Van Gogh described as "a great source of light", regardless of the somber literature they contain. The dashes of lemon, pink, orange and green seem to bring life to the books, like the blossoming flower that[52] also adds a feeling that the paintings is made for a woman. In 1888 Van Gogh gave this painting and another to his sister, Wil for her birthday. The other painting was made in Arles and is titled Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass with a Book (F393).[51]


Still Life with Books (F335) was painted by Van Gogh on a lid of a Japanese tea box. The books are Naturalist novels: "Braves Gens" by Jean Richepin, "Au Bonheur Des Dames" by Émile Zola and "La Fille Elisa" by Edmond de Goncourt. Van Gogh, an avid reader, was particularly interested by French Naturalists. To his sister Wil, he once wrote "they paint life as we ourselves feel it, thereby fulfilling the need we have for people to tell us the truth."