Bowl with Peonies and Roses

By the autumn of 1886 Van Gogh was in Paris, and he had a practical problem: he wanted to push his colour further, but live models cost money he did not have. Flowers did not. So through that summer and autumn he painted bouquet after bouquet, using them as a cheap way to test one bright tone against another. Here peonies and roses stand against a deep red ground, the soft pinks and whites made to jump forward by the heat of that background behind them. He was training his own hand in contrast, working the warm reds hard against the cooler blooms until the whole bowl seems to press toward you. It is one of a whole run of flower pieces he turned out in that single year, the cheapest studio he could arrange.