Van Gogh painted this café table with a view in highly thinned oil paint with thin brushes. This technique is called peinture à l’essence. The result looks something like a watercolor. The glass holds absinthe, a popular aperitif. Its alcohol content was 60 to 70%, and it was often mixed with water. Van Gogh drank it frequently. Absinthe was very bad for one's health. Van Gogh drank alcohol to excess and then abruptly stopped. These facts may have played a role in his later periods of illness. (https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0186V1962) Was Vincent van Gogh addicted to absinthe and overly fond of camphor and turpentine? Wilfred Niels Arnold, biochemist, thinks so.... In the current issue of the Journal of the AMA, Arnold joins legions of art historians, psychiatrists and others who have long analyzed the mental health, self-mutilation and death of one of the world's best-known artists. (http://articles.latimes.com/1988-11-30/entertainment/ca-631_1_van-gogh-painting)