Flowering Orchards his friend Émile Bernard he provided more detail: "Here is another orchard, rather simple as a composition: a white tree, a small green tree, a square patch of green, lilac soil, an orange roof, a large blue sky." The Van Gogh Museum's version of "Orchard in Blossom" was painted in April. Vincent asked Theo to "shave off" some of the impasto in this painting. Apparently he did not reline, a process of heavy pressure and heat to flatten the surface, because sharp edges of thick impasto remain on the painting. Van Gogh painted "View of Arles, Flowering Orchards" in spring
Flowering Orchards new, now the orchards have almost finished blossoming." Flowering trees represented a source of spiritual renewal for Van Gogh; in 1883 he had written of the symbolism of the flowering tree, seeing the evidence of rebirth like the "man who finally produces something poignant as the blossom of a hard, difficult life, is a wonder, like the black hawthorn, or better still the gnarled old apple tree which at certain moments bears blossoms which are among the most delicate and virginal things under the sun." In 1888 Van Gogh became inspired in southern France and began the most productive period