Still-Life with Yellow Straw Hat

Catalogue numbers: F 62, JH 922.

The painter Anton Mauve married into van Gogh's family in 1874 and became a cousin of Vincent. When van Gogh went to The Hague in November 1881, Mauve, who normally accepted no students, was willing to teach him the use of oil paint and watercolour. Under Mauve's guidance, van Gogh painted several studies to which the present still-life belongs. The composition was prepared by drawing the forms first with charcoal before applying the paint.