Entrance to the Public Park in Arles

Van Gogh painted the public park adjacent to his rented Yellow House in Arles on numerous occasions in autumn 1888, and he conceived of these garden paintings as a decorative scheme for the house itself. He called the series 'The Poet's Garden' — named partly after his reading of Petrarch, who had lived in nearby Avignon, and partly after his vision of a southern paradise garden that would inspire the artists who visited his studio. The entrance gate and path leading into the lush garden gave him a natural framing device, and the dappled autumn light through the plane trees provided his most sustained study in the rendering of filtered outdoor light.

Short, curved strokes of olive, gold, and viridian build the foliage canopy. The path and figures below are rendered in cooler ochre and grey. The handling of light filtering through leaves — alternating warm and cool touches — is among Van Gogh's most nuanced optical observations.