Flowering Garden is a beautiful 92 x 73 cm (36.2 x 28.7 in) oil painting. It’s a rectangular-shaped canvas painted by Vincent van Gogh in 1888 and shows a stunning and colorful garden. Its rendition is almost abstract, and the Dutch artist takes advantage of his subject matter to engage in complex color harmony. Van Gogh used small detailed brushstrokes to build the different garden sections, creating a mesmerizing effect of movement, complementary contrast, and intense colors. In Southern France, the painter usually went on walks around the village, where he sketched and painted en plein air. He had moved there hoping to find an intense sun, and in fact, his work got much more colorful, enthusiastic, and with a daring quality.

In Flowering Garden, Van Gogh displays all his skill in working with pretty much blotches and lines. The composition has green as its prevalent color but with different tones, temperature, and color contrasts. At the bottom left, the artist painted reddish-orange petals along with olive green. On the bottom right, the green changes to a more blue one, and there is a pattern made with black paint. In the middle, there are thin yellow brushstrokes among blue and purple petals. The green and orange-red patterns repeat in the next section, and then the yellow and lilac again.

At the top right, Van Gogh brings another of his stylistic trademarks: his use of the line. Through brown branches, dark leaves, and sunflowers, he creates another point of tension in the composition. At the top left, there is a house and some trees on the horizon, keeping a more stable and precise visual, giving the audience a resting point for the eye. The sky is painted flatly, with the turquoise tone present in many Van Gogh pictures from this period.

Vincent van Gogh arrived in his beloved Arles exactly the year this painting was created. Considering his whole life, his passage in the city was fast, but it had an everlasting impact on his work and life. In the previous years, Vincent had lived with his brother Theo in Paris. There, he became a close acquaintance to a certain circle of Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. His work was praised, and his brother Theo, who worked as an art dealer, had hopeful expectations towards his brother’s work. But their life together was difficult, and Vincent decided to move away from Paris. In Arles, his work matured and gained new confidence. He painted intensely in the 18 months that he lived there.