Van Gogh's Orchards in Blossom
In his first spring in Arles, Van Gogh painted the fruit trees in bloom around the town in more than a dozen canvases.
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About the series
Vincent van Gogh arrived in Arles in February 1888. When the apricot, peach, plum and pear trees came into flower that spring, he worked quickly to paint them before the blossom fell, producing more than a dozen orchard paintings in about a month. He planned some of them as triptychs, a large one in the centre and a smaller one on each side.
The pictures are light and bright, with pale pink and white blossom against blue skies, and show the influence of Japanese prints. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam holds The Pink Orchard and The White Orchard, and the Kröller-Müller Museum holds Pink Peach Trees, which he dedicated to the memory of his cousin by marriage, the painter Anton Mauve. In February 1890, at Saint-Rémy, he painted Almond Blossom as a gift for his newborn nephew. It is also in the Van Gogh Museum.
Try hanging three orchard paintings together as a triptych, with the largest size in the middle, as Van Gogh intended.
