Vincent van Gogh

Piles de romans parisiens et roses dans un verre (Romans parisiens)

Paris, 1887 was sold for $62.7 million at Sotheby's New York on November 20, 2025

The painting sold this year for $62.7 million and set a record for a still life by the artist. 

Van Gogh's famous "Romans parisiens" painting sold for $62.7 million.

Painted during Vincent van Gogh’s Paris years (1886–1888), this still life is a revealing work that reflects both the artist’s intellectual life and a pivotal transformation in his pictorial language. The reference to “Romans parisiens” (Parisian novels) directly evokes modern urban culture, literature, and the new ideas Van Gogh encountered after moving to Paris.

The composition brings together a stack of novels and a glass vase filled with roses. The books symbolize Van Gogh’s intellectual curiosity, his engagement with literature, and his immersion in contemporary Parisian life. The roses, by contrast, suggest fragility, transience, and the poetic dimension of existence. Placed side by side, these elements create a subtle dialogue between the life of the mind and emotional sensitivity.

 In this work, warm yellows and reds are balanced against cool blues and greens.

The brushwork remains visible and animated, yet it is more restrained than in his later Arles paintings, underscoring the transitional nature of the piece.

While traditional still lifes often focus on flowers, fruit, or tableware, Van Gogh’s inclusion of books is strikingly modern. It introduces the realm of thought, reading, and urban culture into the genre, transforming the still life into a reflection of the intellectual atmosphere of late-19th-century Paris.