Still Life with Bottle, Two Glasses, Cheese and Bread

This 1886 Paris still life is an exercise in studied simplicity — a bottle, two glasses, cheese, and bread arranged on a table. The subject matter is quintessentially French, and Van Gogh painted such modest arrangements as he was teaching himself the language of Impressionism in Paris. There is something touching about the everyday plainness of these objects: the working man's meal of bread and cheese, rendered with complete seriousness. The Van Gogh Museum canvas documents the transitional moment between his dark Dutch palette and the color explosion of his later years — the objects are painted more directly and brightly than his Nuenen work, but the composition retains a northern solidity.

The composition is simple and frontal, with objects placed on a neutral surface. Van Gogh's handling has become lighter and more varied than his Nuenen still lifes — the whites of the cheese and bottle glow, and the glass vessels are rendered with transparent accuracy. A controlled palette of grays, whites, and earth tones.