Arles named in a quarter of its year

The record dates Entrance to the Public Garden in Arles to 1888. Of the 135 works the catalogue dates to that year, twenty-five name Arles in the title itself; the word appears in twenty-nine titles overall, the rest dated 1889 and 1890. No other place-name in the decade is carried by so many entries.

What the record gives

The canvas measures 91 by 72.5 centimetres, a large upright, and it is held by the Philips Collection in Washington, which holds two works in this catalogue, dated 1888 and 1890. The measured palette reads as green and yellow.

The garden years

Gardens are named in twenty-four titles here and the distribution is steeply late: one dated 1885, three dated 1887, nine dated 1888, six dated 1889 and four dated 1890. Public gardens specifically appear in two titles, both dated 1888. A subject that arrives with a period and then stays is less common in this catalogue than one that arrives and leaves, and the counting is the whole of the argument. What the garden looked like is not described here; the record holds a title, a size, a year and an owner.