Orchard in Blossom, Bordered by Cypresses

Orchard in Blossom, Bordered by Cypresses (1888) at the Kröller-Müller Museum belongs to the extraordinary series of blossoming orchard paintings Van Gogh made in the spring of 1888 — among the first canvases he completed after arriving in Arles in February, when the Provençal orchards came into bloom. The addition of flanking cypresses transforms the subject: the dark, flame-like vertical forms of the cypress against the pale pink blossom create the warm-cool complementary contrast that he had studied in colour theory and was now deploying in the actual landscape. He had written to Bernard about his aim to make the orchard paintings 'more orderly' than his Paris work — more deliberately composed, less casually Impressionist — and the formal tension between the blossoming trees and the dark cypress borders gives this version a structural clarity that justifies his ambition. The Kröller-Müller Museum's version is among the finest of the series.

Van Gogh renders the blossoms in dabs and strokes of white and pale pink against the blue Provençal sky, with the dark cypresses providing strong vertical accents that frame the composition. The paint is applied with controlled energy — thicker in the blossoms, more fluid in the sky — creating a surface that vibrates with the excitement of his Arles arrival.