Daubigny was a member of the Barbizon school of artists, active in the Fontainebleau region of Île-de-France in the 1830s and 1840s, who espoused a naturalistic approach to landscape painting. While the critic Théophile Gautier extolled the naturalism of Daubigny's landscapes in 1859, describing them as "pieces of nature cut out and set into golden frames," the artist's detractors faulted his loose handling and the absence of finish in his works.

Daubigny first painted scenes of flowering orchards about 1857, reprising the motif almost every spring. This canvas, dated 1873, reflects his assimilation of the lightened palette of the Impressionists, first seen in his paintings from the end of the previous decade. Claude Monet, who as a young artist admired Daubigny's landscapes, painted two views of blossoming apple trees, also dated 1873 (Metropolitan Museum; H.S.H. the Prince of Monaco).

Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): Daubigny 1873

William H. Fuller, New York (by 1892–98; his sale, American Art Association, New York, February 25, 1898, no. 29, for $6,000 to John B. Randolph for Huntington); Collis P. Huntington, New York (1898–d. 1900; his bequest to MMA with life interest to his widow, Arabella D. Huntington, later [from 1913] Mrs. Henry E. Huntington, 1900–d. 1924; life interest to their son, Archer Milton Huntington, 1924–terminated in 1925)

New York. Union League Club. "Early English Painters: A Loan Exhibition from the Collection of M. H. Fuller, Esq. . . . Together with Paintings by Modern French and Dutch Artists," February 11–13, 1892, no. 35.

New York. American Fine Arts Society. "Loan Exhibition," February 13–March 26, 1893, no. 111 [see Ref. Sterling and Salinger 1966].

New York. Union League Club. "Two Barbizon Painters: Constant Troyon and Charles François Daubigny," November 1895, no. 23 (lent by Mr. W. H. Fuller, New York).

Newark Museum. "19th-Century French and American Paintings from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 9–May 15, 1946, no. 12.

American Federation of the Arts. "A Landscape View of 19th Century France (circulating exhibition)," September 1, 1954–1957, no catalogue?

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Corot and His Contemporaries," May 8–June 21, 1959, unnumbered cat.

Palm Beach. Society of the Four Arts. "Paintings of the Barbizon School," January 6–29, 1962, no. 18.

Oshkosh, Wisc. Paine Art Center & Arboretum. "Charles François Daubigny," May 1–31, 1964, no. 72.

New York. Gallery of Modern Art. "Charles François Daubigny," June 16–August 2, 1964, no. 72 [see Ref. Sterling and Salinger 1966].

Memphis. Dixon Gallery and Gardens. "Charles François Daubigny (1817–1878)," March 19–April 23, 1978, no catalogue.

Edinburgh. National Gallery of Scotland. "Lighting up the Landscape: French Impressionism and its Origins," August 1–October 19, 1986, no. 82.

Amsterdam. Rijksmuseum Vincent Van Gogh. "Franse meesters uit het Metropolitan Museum of Art: Realisten en Impressionisten," March 15–May 31, 1987, no. 4.

Fort Lauderdale. Museum of Art. "Corot to Cézanne: 19th Century French Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," December 22, 1992–April 11, 1993, no catalogue.

Albany. New York State Museum. "French Painters of Nature; The Barbizon School: Landscapes from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 22–August 22, 2004, no catalogue.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 46.

Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Französische Meisterwerke des 19.Jahrhunderts aus dem Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," June 1–October 7, 2007, unnumbered cat.

Charles-François Daubigny. Exh. cat., Paine Art Center. Oshkosh, Wisc., 1964, unpaginated, no. 72, ill.

Charles Sterling, and Margaretta M. Salinger. "XIX Century." French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2, New York, 1966, p. 99, ill.

Madeleine Fidell-Beaufort and Janine Bailly-Herzberg. Daubigny. Paris, 1975, p. 184, no. 131, ill., publishes two other pictures of the same subject, dated 1871 and about 1874.

Robert Hellebranth. Charles-François Daubigny, 1817–1878. Morges, Switzerland, 1976, p. 317, no. 972, ill., as "Pommiers en Fleur".

Michael Clarke. Lighting up the Landscape: French Impressionism and its Origins. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1986, pp. 17, 69, no. 82.

Sjraar van Heutgen et al. in Franse meesters uit het Metropolitan Museum of Art: Realisten en Impressionisten. Exh. cat., Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1987, pp. 10, 34–35, no. 4, ill. (color, overall and detail).

Roger Hurlburt. "Free Spirits." Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale) (December 20, 1992), p. 4D.

Kathryn Calley Galitz in The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, pp. 70, 203, no. 46, ill. (color and black and white).

Kathryn Calley Galitz in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 82, 237, no. 76, ill. (color and black and white).