Poor and largely self-taught, François Bonvin saved money for his art studies by working as a clerk in the Paris police department. He became friends with the painter Gustave Courbet and art critic Jules Champfleury and was influenced by the naturalism of earlier masters, such as Jan Vermeer and Jean-Baptiste Chardin. Bonvin came to be regarded as one of the founders of the French Realist movement. In 1879 ill health forced the artist to concentrate on small-scale still lifes, such as this intimate chalk study of humble kitchen implements.