Still Life with Three Puppies 1888

Paul Gauguin’s "Still Life with Three Puppies", is an oil painting composed of carefully arranged objects on what appears to be a patterned tablecloth. The colour palette, marked by earthy tones and stark blues, creates a dream-like atmosphere that draws the viewer into a world slightly removed from reality. The composition invites us to consider how objects are placed not just for aesthetic pleasure but also to destabilize traditional perspective. Notice how Gauguin challenges the conventional still life by incorporating animate figures—the puppies. These elements disrupt the sense of order, pushing against the static nature of still life. The puppies, rendered in soft hues, tilt precariously over the rim of the pan, creating tension with the solidity of the inanimate objects below. Through his manipulation of form, Gauguin asks us to question fixed notions of the genre itself. He blurs the boundaries between representation and abstraction, inviting us to see the still life not as a mirror of reality, but as a construction of it.