The white orchard

The White Orchard, painted in March 1888 and now at the Van Gogh Museum, is among the earliest of the celebrated Arles blossom series that marked Van Gogh's first spring in Provence. Arriving in Arles in February, he encountered the blossoming orchards of Provence with an almost overwhelming joy — the light, the color, and the abundance of bloom were entirely different from anything he had experienced in the Netherlands or Paris. He painted approximately fourteen orchard paintings in March and April 1888, representing a sustained creative outpouring that established the Arlesian landscape as his primary subject. The white blooms of apricot or almond trees represent the season's first flowering.

The composition shows a single blossoming orchard tree or group of trees rendered against the Provençal sky with Van Gogh's characteristic energetic brushwork. The white and pale pink blossoms are built through individual petal strokes — rapid, curved marks applied with urgency that nonetheless build convincingly into the impression of laden flowering branches. The branches themselves are rendered in precise dark lines against the bright blossoms. His palette is light and fresh, appropriate to the early spring subject.