Garden with Courting Couples: Square Saint-Pierre

1887

Oil on canvas, 75 × 113 cm. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Couples stroll and sit under young chestnut trees in a Paris park on a spring day. It shows him testing the newest Paris technique on a scene of modern leisure.

He swapped the Pointillists' dots for short dashes of uneven size, each pointing its own way. The borrowed method becomes a source of movement and light rather than a strict system.
He called it his garden-with-lovers picture.
Look at the sky, made of slanting blue and white dashes across the whole upper half.
Red touches mark the chestnut blossom, scattered through the green of the trees.
It is on view in Amsterdam, owned by the foundation that bears the painter's name.

The theme of couples together reflected his own longing for a wife and family. That hope went unmet, and he gave himself to his art instead.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · PD-Art