Orchard in Blossom, Bordered by Cypresses

Van Gogh reached Arles in February 1888, and within weeks the fruit trees around the town came into blossom. He knew the flowers would last only days, so he worked fast, finishing about 14 orchard paintings in a single spring before the petals dropped. This one is walled in by cypresses and yellow reed fences, the kind farmers used against the mistral, the cold wind that tears down the Rhone valley. The dark spikes of cypress were new to him. Having spent years in the grey north he had never really looked at the tree, and here he uses it as a frame, a band of near-black holding in all that pale pink and white. He told Theo the orchards were the sort of subject that makes everyone cheerful.