The Flowering Orchard 1888

Curator: Ah, here we have van Gogh's "The Flowering Orchard," painted in 1888. It currently resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: It feels incredibly vibrant. That thickly applied paint, the intensity of the greens… It almost feels overwhelming in its depiction of life and growth. Curator: Van Gogh was working "en plein air", taking the industrial advancements of easily portable paint tubes outside to paint in situ, embracing a more direct encounter with his subject matter. His brushstrokes mimic the movement within nature, a tangible link between his hand and what he observed. Editor: And look at how he depicts labor even in a pastoral scene – the inclusion of the rake seems almost a quiet comment on our manipulation of the land. It asks, “What processes enable our aesthetic consumption of such scenery?" Is he offering subtle socio-political critique of land ownership? Curator: Potentially, but I tend to see his social critique more pointedly when he depicted working-class people; in works like "The Potato Eaters," for example. Here I think his intense observation is key. This painting exists at a fascinating point in art history; galleries had grown substantially in number since the mid-19th Century and so works that might once have stayed in artist’s studios suddenly found an audience beyond their immediate peers. Editor: And an audience steeped in ideas about art as pure representation of beauty, against which, van Gogh pushed so radically. This canvas, through its very visible manufacture – brushstrokes and texture so pronounced they can be easily perceived - almost mocks conventional taste. Look at the impasto alone. It practically vibrates! Curator: He takes a traditional landscape genre and renders it almost unrecognisable to those traditional tastes, absolutely. It reflects broader artistic trends; the shifting socio-economic and political landscape; industrial production seeping into traditional methods. Editor: I see a landscape brimming with productive processes. A powerful reminder of how the artistic eye refracts the real, underscoring both our human hand and socio-historical footprint upon it. Curator: A good point! A beautiful work with layers beyond immediate aesthetic pleasure.