Flowering Garden with Path

This 1888 garden path painting belongs to the series of Arles garden subjects Van Gogh made during the exceptionally productive summer of that year. The flowering garden — bright with summer color, the path inviting the eye through varied bloom — gave him material to explore pure color relationships in nature without the pressure of portraiture or narrative. Gardens as a genre had been renewed by the Impressionists, particularly Monet at Argenteuil, and Van Gogh brought to the subject his Provençal palette and more gestural execution. The Kunstmuseum Den Haag holds this as part of its significant Van Gogh collection.

The garden is painted with vigorous, varied brushwork — different stroke directions distinguishing path, foliage, and flower clusters. Van Gogh's palette is intensely colorful, the summer blooms rendered in primary and complementary contrast. The composition is organized around the path leading the eye into the depth of the garden.