Peach Trees in Blossom

[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] 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".