Still Life with Scabiosa and Ranunculus

In the spring of 1886 Van Gogh was newly arrived in Paris, living in his brother Theo's small apartment. He had come from the Netherlands, where his paintings were mostly brown and grey, the colour of peat and worked earth. Paris was full of pictures he had never seen, and he set himself a plain exercise. He bought cheap bunches of cut flowers and painted them, again and again, to learn what one bright colour does when you set it next to another. This is one of those studies, a small canvas of scabiosa and ranunculus barely larger than a sheet of paper. The blooms are placed against a dark ground, so the reds and soft purples seem to push forward into the light. He made a whole run of these flower pieces across that first Paris summer, and from one to the next you can watch his hand loosen and his colours warm.