GOGH, Vincent van
(b. 1853, Groot Zundert, d. 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise)

Peach Tree in Blossom

April-May 1888, Arles
Oil on canvas, 81 x 60 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Catalogue numbers: F 404, JH 1391.

The very meaning of van Gogh's fruit trees is light. Even where shadows are suggested, the darker zones are like shadows cast by the blossoms themselves - as if the blossoms were a light bulb and the trunk and branches a lampstand. The present close-up of a peach tree demonstrates this in an exemplary manner: at ground level, shadows spread out on both sides.