Thistles

In a vase on a table are thistles with spreading thorny leaves and ears of wheat. The jagged leaves spread outward and outward, forming the framework of the picture. Concentric brush marks are layered on the vase, and short strokes crossing vertically and horizontally are laid over the background.

Clear outlines are drawn around the table and vase. In these lines one can see the influence of the ukiyo-e that Vincent van Gogh had studied. It is a work that pursues line, color and the texture of the painted surface within a small canvas.

In 1890 van Gogh moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, a village northwest of Paris, to be treated by the psychiatrist Dr. Gachet. In about two months there he painted around seventy works. This work is one of several still lifes of wildflowers he found at Dr. Gachet's house, painted on June 16 or 17 of that year.

Van Gogh shot himself in the chest on July 27 and died two days later. The work is housed in the Pola Museum of Art as a piece that conveys his work in his last days in that place.