Details
The image
Blossom against a pale sky, painted with short strokes that stay visible, the ground suggested by a band of warm colour and the branches drawn rather than modelled. The picture is bright and slightly restless, as though the paint had been applied quickly and on purpose.
Where it comes from
The orchards of southern France gave Van Gogh a subject he returned to in spring after spring: trees in flower, painted against light that flattened the distance. The works belong to the years when he was working beside other painters and arguing with them about colour, and they entered the public domain long ago, which is why they travel so widely on paper.
On the wall
It brings light into a room, so it suits a living room, a bedroom or a hallway with pale walls. Because the brushwork is dense and the sky is open, it needs space above the horizon line. In a group it works as the piece that lifts the palette.
In company
The spacing and the weight of line carry across the whole Vincent Van Gogh collection.If the wall needs an anchor rather than light, the 1960 exhibition poster does that job in the same language.
