Still Life with Earthenware and Bottles, 1885
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Oil on Canvas, 39.5 X 56 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
(Vincent van Gogh Stichting)
F 53

In 1884 Van Gogh worked briefly as a teacher in Eindhoven, where he gave painting lessons to a small number of amateur painters. He had them make still lives, simultaneously experimenting with the genre himself, and devoting particular attention to the reciprocal effect of the colors. In this painting, which is built up mainly in tints of brown, he juxtaposed the cool green of the bottles with the warm red-brown of the large earthenware pot. Against this dark background, the inside of the bowl appears to be white, although this, too, is in fact rendered in muted tones.