Peach Trees in Blossom

Peach Trees in Blossom (1889) at the Courtauld Gallery in London belongs to a later iteration of the orchard series Van Gogh had first painted in March 1888 — either made during his brief return to Arles in February 1889 after leaving the hospital, or during his continued engagement with the blossoming orchard motif in the early spring of that year. The Courtauld Gallery's version carries the weight of temporal context: where the 1888 orchard paintings were made in a state of joyful discovery — the first spring in the south, the overwhelming beauty of Provençal blossom — this later version was painted in the aftermath of crisis, the same seasonal beauty returning after the December breakdown. The Courtauld Gallery, which holds some of the finest Post-Impressionist works in the world including significant Cézannes and Seurats, preserves this as one of its most important Van Gogh holdings.

The flowering branches are rendered with a delicate, precise touch that captures the lightness and fragility of spring blossom. Van Gogh's palette is at its most optimistic in these orchard paintings — high-keyed pinks and whites against blue sky. The brushwork on the flowers is quick and light, contrasting with the more deliberate rendering of the tree's darker branches.