Books had a great importance in the life of Van Gogh. From childhood, he read a lot, and literature in many ways influenced his thoughts and actions. Playing the role of a kind of “interlocutors” in the lonely life of the artist, the books determined his worldview and perception of the surrounding reality.
Moving to Paris, Van Gogh was read by works of contemporary authors, such as Emil Zola, Maupassant, Dode. New novels fascinate him as they used to carry religious books. This can be seen in their letters to the artist, in which he often refers to modern literature.
This still life was the sketch for the painting “Paris novels,” which was written a little later and exhibited in 1888. The artist painted a lot of books, randomly lying on the table. Some of them are open. Yellow covers of books indicate that these are modern Van Gogh Parisian novels, which were published exactly in the covers of this color.
Yellow generally prevails in the color range of the canvas, only the table is written with jerky strokes of white and pink paint. Since the work is just a sketch for the future picture, Van Gogh generalizes the details, depicting objects with wide, monophonic planes. Here he does not show the names of books, as in other similar still lifes.
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