Orchard with Peach Trees in Blossom

Van Gogh's Orchard with Peach Trees in Blossom from 1888 belongs to the extraordinary series of Arles orchard paintings he made in the spring of that year — his first spring in Provence, experienced with the excitement of a northerner encountering Mediterranean florescence for the first time. He described working with feverish concentration to capture the brief flowering before the blossoms fell. The peach orchard — its rows of trees simultaneously displaying the delicate pink-white bloom of spring against the blue of the Provençal sky — gave him material he returned to multiple times. The work is currently in a private collection.

The orchard rows recede through the composition, each tree in simultaneous bloom creating a coordinated spectacle of pink-white blossom. Van Gogh's palette is fresh and light for these orchard paintings, capturing the specific quality of spring color — pale pinks, whites, cool blues — before the intensity of Arles summer. The brushwork on the flowers is delicate; the structural elements of the orchard are handled more firmly.