Peach Trees in Blossom is an 1899 painting by Vincent van Gogh. It is in the collection of the Courtauld Institute of Art.[1] The painting depicts a field with peach trees on the outskirts of Arles with the Alpilles mountains in the background.[1] The painting was intended as a homage to Japanese landscape prints which influenced Van Gogh.[1] It was created a few months after he had severed his ear and during a mentally unstable period in which he was still a patient at the men's hospital in Arles.[1]
Van Gogh wrote to his brother, Theo van Gogh in April 1889 about his work on the painting, and subsequently included a sketch of the work in a letter to Paul Signac sent on 10 April 1889.[1]
History edit
Peach Trees in Blossom was bought by the Belgian artist Anna Boch in 1891 for 350 francs (equivalent to £14 in 1891 and equivalent to £1,627 in 2021).[1] It was next acquired in 1927 by Samuel Courtauld for £9,000 (equivalent to £571,525 in 2021).[1] The painting was hung by Courtauld in the Etruscan Room of his house in Portman Square in Marylebone.[1]
The painting was lent by Courtauld to an exhibition in the Village Hall of Silver End in Essex in 1935, as part of a project called 'Art for the People' to broaden public access to works of art.[1] In a 1935 letter to Lady Aberconway, Courtauld recalled that a recent drive through the countryside of Kent reminded him of the painting with its "bright green grass & blossoming fruit trees & the newly washed sky & water glistening everywhere".[1] The work presently hangs in the Great Room of the Courthald Institute of Art.[1]
On 30 June 2022 two protesters from Just Stop Oil glued themselves to the frame of the painting and caused £2,000 of damage to it.[2] Both were found guilty of causing criminal damage to the painting, one was found jailed for three weeks and the other received a suspended sentence.[2]
References edit
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "The story behind the exuberant spring landscape Van Gogh painted just weeks after slashing his ear". The Art Newspaper. 22 April 2022. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
- ^ a b "TJust Stop Oil: Pair guilty of damaging Van Gogh painting's frame". BBC News. 22 November 2022. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
External links edit
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