Still Life: Drawing Board, Pipe, Onions, and Sealing Wax

Still Life: Drawing Board, Pipe, Onions, and Sealing Wax

   Still Life: Drawing Board, Pipe, Onions, and Sealing Wax is a realistic painting done by Vincent van Gogh which is now located in Kroller Muller Museum in the Netherlands. This painting was painted in 1888, after Van Gogh was discharged from the hospital after one of his many crises. Right when he arrived home from the hospital, he quickly returned to his studio and began painting again. He began with still life to practice his rusty painting skills after being enclosed in a hospital for 2 weeks. In the book Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick, it is mentioned that Van Gogh has agreed to do a portrait of his doctor, Dr. Felix Rey soon after his release of the hospital, and he worries that he would only be able to paint still life after his sickness.
  Van Gogh uses oil on canvas for this painting. He paints the many things on his cluttered table to practice his abilities after a short period of not painting. The items seen in this painting are onions on a plate, a book,  an empty bottle of wine, an envelope, a pipe, a green kettle, and a candlestick. He used light strokes to make up the shading and shadows of the objects. He uses a vibrant palette in this painting, such as a bright green for the kettle and his signature yellow on the tabletop. The angle of this painting seems as if he is standing over the table off to the side to capture all the objects on top of the table. His skill is shown in the attention to detail in the painting considering his short break from painting in the hospital.