Peach Trees in Blossom

Vincent van Gogh captured this view of an open plain outside Arles in early spring 1889. He wrote to his brother that the blossoms and the distant snow-capped mountain reminded him of the cherry trees and Mount Fuji in the Japanese prints he collected and greatly admired. Van Gogh had moved to the south of France a year earlier, hoping that the Provençal light and landscape would inspire his art. The scene is rendered with a great variety of brushstrokes, from thick dots of paint for the blossoms to long streaks for the mountains.