Oleanders were happy, affirming flowers for Van Gogh since they flowered "inexhaustibly" and were always "throwing out robust new branches." The majolica jug that the artist used to create other still life paintings at Arles is filled with flowers in this painting from August 1888. In a Nuenen still life from 1885, Van Gogh contrasted a novel by Émile Zola called La joie de vivre with an open Bible.
