Vincent painted this picture a few months after his father died. It is his father's Bible. "The candle stood for the ending of Theodorus can Gogh's life and the lost power of the holy book. Beside it was the new source of truth, a yellow paperback novel of Vincetn's that was coming apart at the spire through constant reading. Its title was legible: La joie de vivre by Emile Zola."
