Grapes, Lemons, Pears, and Apples

By the autumn of 1887 Van Gogh had been in Paris for about 18 months, living with his brother Theo, and the dark browns of his Dutch years were behind him. He had been studying the Impressionists and colour theory, and that season he painted a run of fruit still lifes to test what he had learned. Here greens sit against reds and yellows against violet, each pair chosen so the two colours push at one another and read as brighter. The paint is laid on thick and fast. That winter he hung pictures like this in a show he organised himself for a handful of young painters, in a large working-men's restaurant on the avenue de Clichy. He later called the still lifes he made then his violent ones.