Apricot Trees in Blossom

Van Gogh reached Arles in February 1888 in a snowstorm. Within a few weeks the fruit trees around the town were in flower, and he went after them almost daily, finishing some 14 orchard canvases in about a month. He knew the blossom would not wait. On 21 April he wrote to his brother Theo that he would have to find something new, because the orchards had nearly finished flowering.

This small canvas, only 41 by 33 centimetres, belongs to that race against the season. Look past the apricot trees to the dark green wall along the top. Those are cypresses, planted in Provence as windbreaks against the mistral, the cold wind that drives down the Rhône valley. Local growers also sheltered young trees behind fences of reed and cane, and one runs across the left side of the picture. The same wind forced Van Gogh to peg his easel into the ground while he painted these orchards.