An East Asian doll, a classic sculpture of a horse’s head, a fan with an ukiyo-e pasted on it, a book: the odd assemblage of items in this still life were painted using precise dabs of colors. Unusually for Gauguin, he used the Neo-Impressionist technique of pointillism. The horse sculpture is modeled on the head of a horse from the Parthenon in the Elgin Marbles (British Museum). The vogue for Japonisme may have brought the doll and fan to Paris. Gauguin was influenced by Japanese art, studied its techniques seriously, and built a new style in a flattened, simplified manner. This work was the first step in Gauguin’s interest in Japanese art.