Orchards in Bloom
At the best of his time in Arles he felt it himself — but he did not know what to call it.
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F394 The Pink Peach Tree 1888 -
F403 The Pink Orchard 1888 -
F405 Orchard in Blossom (Plum Trees) 1888 -
F553 Blossoming Pear Tree 1888
Painting
Fourteen orchard paintings, completed in three weeks. Four shown here — peach pink, pink orchard, plum, pear — four motif colours from the series. His first spring in Arles — Provençal orchards erupting all at once in March. He said he was painting "with the gusto of a Marseillais eating bouillabaisse." Each canvas a simple composition: one tree, one sky, one ground. Japanese restraint.
Letter
March–April 1888, Arles. "I'm in a fury of work since the trees are in blossom and I wanted to do a Provençal orchard of tremendous gaiety." He dedicated this series to the recently deceased painter Mauve — writing "Souvenir de Mauve" on the pink peach tree. Blossoms are brief; he raced against time.
Place
Orchards outside Arles. March — the mistral still cutting, the bloom lasting maybe ten days before the wind strips it bare. He carried the easel out daily; it blew over more than once. He had been in the south five weeks. This was the first thing the place gave him, and he tried to take all of it before the wind did.
He arrived in Arles in February 1888, stepping off the train into snow, recognizing nothing. Soon after arriving he linked the place to Japan: the air clear, the colours bright, the water like the blue and green of the prints (letter 587, to Bernard).
In March the orchards came into blossom, and he went out to paint every day, one or two canvases a day. The orchard in bloom is not simply spring; it is the first time he believed the South could retrain his eye.
A few months later he wrote to Wil (letter 626): that he might turn into a machine with nothing left but work, more and more unfit for any part of life but painting. He did not know this was the smoothest stretch of his time in Arles.
Events
- Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 591
Vincent arrived in Arles on the night train and found Provence under snow — 'It is like Japan here.'
- The Translator · Letter 596
After the snow melted, the orchards began to bloom. He decided to paint a series in the manner of Japanese prints: 'It's a subject I wanted to treat like the Japanese.'
- The Colour Experimenter · Letter 594
'I'm in a fury of work since the trees are in blossom and I wanted to do a Provençal orchard of tremendous gaiety.' Painted seven orchard canvases in a single week
- Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 597
Listed an exact colour formula in a letter: 'A white tree, a small green tree, a square of ground, a lilac background, an orange roof.'
- The Copyist · Letter 598
Dedicated The Pink Peach Tree to the painter Mauve, in memory of the teacher who had just died — the man who had taught him in The Hague ten years earlier
- The Translator · Letter 600
About fourteen pieces in the orchard series complete. The Provençal blossoming season is short — he finished the set before the petals fell, applying the grammar of Japanese prints at scale to southern French fruit trees for the first time
From the Letters
Je suis dans une rage de travail puisque les arbres sont en fleur et que je voulais faire un verger de Provence d'une gaieté monstre. I'm in a fury of work since the trees are in blossom and I wanted to do a Provençal orchard of tremendous gaiety.
Les vergers en fleur! C'est un motif que j'ai voulu traiter comme les Japonais. The orchards in blossom! It's a subject I wanted to treat like the Japanese.
Voici un nouveau verger, d'un motif bien simple — un arbre blanc, un petit arbre vert, un terrain carré — un fond lilas — un toit orange. Here's a new orchard, of a very simple motif — a white tree, a small green tree, a square of ground — a lilac background — an orange roof.
Letter Sources
Van Gogh letter records referenced on this page, linked to the Van Gogh Letters Project. vangoghletters.org