Still Life with Bloaters

Van Gogh's still life with bloaters — smoked herring — painted in 1886 during his Paris years, is characteristic of his willingness to take working-class food as a serious still-life subject. Bloaters were cheap, pungent preserved fish, the staple of the poor, and Van Gogh's repeated treatment of smoked and salted fish as still-life subjects reflects his ongoing identification with and respect for poverty. The Kunstmuseum Basel's holding places this alongside other significant Van Gogh Paris period works in an important Swiss collection. The silvery fish against a simple background carry the same dignity he gave to peasant faces.

The bloaters are rendered with direct observation of their silvery, slightly golden surface and elongated forms. Van Gogh's Paris palette brings more chromatic nuance to this subject than his Nuenen period would have — the fish's iridescent quality is observed with color sensitivity. The composition is simple and frontal, the fish themselves the entire subject.