The Apple Tree

Gerhard Munthe's The Apple Tree (1887) depicts the flowering or fruiting apple tree — a Norwegian domestic tree closely associated with farm life and the brief productive season of the Norwegian summer. Munthe's apple tree subject connects to the tradition of Norwegian orchard painting that was emerging alongside the national romantic interest in Norwegian farm culture. The apple tree in bloom or fruit was both a purely aesthetic subject and a symbol of the productive summer season that Norwegian farmers and their families depended on through the long winter.

The apple tree subject — whether in bloom or laden with fruit — offered Munthe the opportunity to explore the specific visual character of a tree that was simultaneously botanical subject and cultural symbol. His handling of the tree's form — the gnarled trunk, the spreading canopy of either white blossom or laden with fruit — shows careful observation. His palette adapts to the specific seasonal moment: the pink-white of spring bloom or the red-green of autumn fruit, integrated within the Norwegian farm landscape.