The Lovers: The Poet's Garden IV

Van Gogh's Lovers: The Poet's Garden IV from 1888 is the fourth in his series depicting the public garden in Arles that he called 'the poet's garden,' imagining it as a place associated with Petrarch and Dante. The presence of lovers — a couple walking or standing in the garden's allées — transforms the landscape from pure scenery into a human drama, the garden as a setting for romantic life. Van Gogh conceived this series as decoration for his Yellow House, believing the garden imagery would create a harmonious environment for the art community he hoped to establish with Gauguin. The work is currently in a private collection.

The garden setting is rendered with Van Gogh's Arles decorative intention — vivid colors, strong patterns of light through foliage. The couple figures are relatively small within the landscape, the garden itself dominant. His palette deploys the warm greens and yellows of the Mediterranean autumn garden against which the figures move as darker silhouettes.