Sunny Lawn in a Public Park

Van Gogh's Sunny Lawn in a Public Park at Arles (1888) belongs to the poet's garden series he made as decoration for his Yellow House. The sunlit lawn — vivid green in the intense Provençal light, animated by the shadows of surrounding trees — represents the garden as a place of beauty and repose. Van Gogh had conceived of the Yellow House as a community studio, the 'Studio of the South,' and the garden paintings were intended to create an environment of cultivated natural beauty within it. The work is currently unlocated or in private hands.

The sunlit lawn is rendered with the intense greens and yellows of Mediterranean summer light, Van Gogh's palette at its most chromatic. Tree shadows falling across the bright lawn create strong pattern within the composition. His energetic brushwork captures both the brightness of the sunlit areas and the cooler shadow zones.