Still Life with Jars

In the winter of 1884 Van Gogh, living with his parents in the village of Nuenen, took on a few amateur pupils from the nearby town of Eindhoven and taught them to paint still lifes in oil. He threw himself into it and produced a run of his own, bottles, bowls and stoneware pots arranged on a table. This is one of them, four earthenware jars, a bottle and a white bowl. The change from a year before is in the handling. The paint goes on thicker and looser, and he plays small colour contrasts off each other to give each dull pot its own weight and character. He was still teaching himself as he went.