Натюрморт с французскими романами и стаканом с розой

By 1887 van Gogh was living in Paris with his brother Theo, and his painting was changing fast under the bright colour of the city. This still life gathers up something he loved as much as painting, the modern French novels sold as cheap yellow paperbacks by writers like Zola and Maupassant. He read them constantly and said they had pulled him through his darkest stretches, calling such books a great source of light. So he piled them on a table with a single rose in a glass and painted them like treasure. He gave the picture, together with another, to his sister Wil for her birthday.