Almond Blossom

A painting made for a baby who shared his name

On 31 January 1890, Theo van Gogh and Jo Bonger had a son in Paris. They named him Vincent Willem, after his uncle. The painter was then living at the asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, and the news reached him as almond trees in the south were starting to flower.

Writing to his mother in February, Van Gogh explained that he had begun a painting for the couple straight away, to hang in their bedroom: large branches of white almond blossom against a blue sky. That letter is why the picture is so often called a birth present. It was made for a particular room and a particular family, not as a general study of spring.

The canvas stayed with that family. Vincent Willem later founded the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, and Almond Blossom now hangs in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the museum his work helped bring into being.

There is no ground, only sky and branches

Most tree paintings show where the tree stands. This one does not. There is no trunk base, no horizon and no garden. We seem to be lying underneath the tree, looking straight up, while branches cross the canvas and run off every edge.

The blue is not a flat backdrop. It moves from greener turquoise to deeper, cooler blue, and the strokes change direction around the branches. Against that ground, each twig and cluster of petals reads clearly, almost like a pattern on fabric.

The Van Gogh Museum links the bold outlines and the close, cropped view of the branches to his long study of Japanese prints. He had collected them in Paris and admired the way they cut nature into strong, decorative fragments. Here the influence is absorbed rather than copied: the paint is thick, physical and unmistakably his own.

One flower is painted almost like a portrait

Look near the lower centre and one blossom stands out from the rest. Its petals are laid in with thick, creamy white paint, and a fine pinkish edge separates them from the blue. Yellow touches mark the centre.

Close by, small buds still carry red tips. Open flowers, half-open flowers and closed buds share the same branches, so the painting shows a tree in the middle of a process rather than at a single fixed moment.

That sequence matters to the picture’s meaning. Almond trees are among the first to bloom in Provence, often in February. A branch in full flower and a bud about to open both point forward in time, which suits a painting made to welcome a child.

The heaviest branches are old, knotted wood

At the bottom of the canvas, the branches become thick and twisted. Van Gogh painted them with curved strokes that wrap around their form, in grey greens with dark outlines. Knots and stubs where smaller branches once grew are clearly visible.

This is the part of the tree that has been there longest. The flowers above depend on it. It is tempting to read that relationship as a quiet image of generations: an older life supporting a newer one. The painting does not state that in words, but the contrast between rough wood and fresh petals is plainly built into its design.

Pink appears only at the edges

Most of the flowers are white with greenish and yellowish shadows. Pink is used sparingly, mostly on buds and on the outer petals of some clusters at upper right. Because there is so little of it, it draws the eye.

The restraint is typical of how Van Gogh handled colour in this canvas. He keeps the range narrow, essentially blue, green and white, and lets small accents do the work. The result is calm. Unlike many of his Provençal pictures, there are no strong complementary contrasts pulling against each other.

He thought it might be his best work, then fell ill

Van Gogh had painted almond blossom before. In Arles, in 1888, he made small studies of a flowering branch in a glass. The 1890 canvas is a different kind of picture: larger, more ambitious and made with someone in mind.

Soon after finishing it, he suffered a severe attack of his illness and could not work for weeks. When he recovered, he told Theo that the branches in blossom had perhaps been his most patiently worked and best canvas, and that his collapse had come just as the work was going well.

Knowing this changes how the painting is sometimes read. It is not a carefree picture painted by a carefree man. It is a deliberate, controlled work made by someone who knew how fragile his situation was, and who chose to make something hopeful for his brother’s family.

Questions about Almond Blossom

Who was Almond Blossom painted for?

For Theo van Gogh and Jo Bonger, to celebrate the birth of their son Vincent Willem on 31 January 1890. Van Gogh intended it for their bedroom.

When and where was it painted?

In February 1890, at the asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, a few months before Van Gogh’s death in July of that year.

Where is the original?

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation), object number s0176V1962.

How large is it?

73.3 × 92.4 centimetres, oil on canvas.

Why does it look like a Japanese print?

The close view, the branches cut by the edges of the canvas and the bold outlines all reflect Van Gogh’s admiration for Japanese woodblock prints, which he collected and copied in Paris.

Sources and image credit

• Van Gogh Museum: Almond Blossom, s0176V1962
• Van Gogh Letters: letter 855, to his mother, February 1890
• Van Gogh Letters: letter 863, to Theo, April 1890
• Wikimedia Commons: Almond blossom, Google Art Project scan

Faithful public-domain reproduction of Almond Blossom (1890), via Wikimedia Commons (Google Art Project). Detail images are crops of the same historical painting; no reconstruction or upscaling.