Inspiration

Van Gogh rents four rooms in the Yellow House in Arles. He tells Theo: ‘I’ve never had such good fortune; nature here is extraordinarily beautiful’. In September he begins a series of garden and park scenes with figures in love. He finds his inspiration close to home, in the Place Lamartine municipal park opposite the Yellow House.

Intimacy

The municipal park is located near ‘the street of the good little ladies’. Due to its proximity to the brothels, Van Gogh believes the park ‘for reason of chastity or morality, empty of flowering shrubs such as the oleander. It’s ordinary plane trees, pines in tall clumps, a weeping tree and green grass. But it has such intimacy!’

Sunny

That intimacy is reflected in this sunny work. Van Gogh depicts the grass and trees in various shades of green, yellow and orange, with some dark touches added to the canopy here and there to provide extra structure. He himself is also in a sunny mood: ‘I’m beginning to feel quite different from what I was when I came here, I have no more doubts, I no longer hesitate to tackle something, and that could increase still further’.