Still Life with Plaster Statuette, a Rose and Two Novels

This unusual 1887 still life painted in Paris combines a plaster statuette — probably a reproduction of an antique or Renaissance work — with a rose and two novels in a composition that reflects Van Gogh's Parisian intellectual environment. The novels would almost certainly be recent French literature, perhaps by Zola or the Goncourts, and their inclusion in a still life was a gesture toward the cultural life of Paris. The plaster statuette connects the composition to the studio tradition of painting from casts. The Kröller-Müller Museum holds this highly personal and literary work.

Van Gogh's Parisian palette is considerably lighter than his Dutch work, with the rose providing a warm accent against the cooler tones of the statuette and books. Paint is applied in short, varied strokes that explore the different surface qualities of the objects — the smooth plaster, the soft petals, the flat paper of the books. The composition is informal and personal in character.