Almond blossom

Thick, powerful branches reach up toward a clear blue sky. Adorning them are delicate white almond blossoms in full bloom. Vincent van Gogh. When hearing his name, many people immediately picture a tragic life. This painting, too, is often described as having been created amidst mad despair or a premonition of death. In reality, however, that is a story constructed after his time. When he painted this, his mind was remarkably serene. And these flowers were not originally white.

January 31, 1890. Joyful news reached Van Gogh while he was recovering at the asylum in Saint-Rémy in southern France. His younger brother Theo and sister-in-law Jo in Paris had welcomed their firstborn son. Theo told him in a letter that they had named the child "Vincent Willem," after his uncle. Van Gogh was overjoyed from the bottom of his heart. He resolved to paint a gift to hang in his nephew’s bedroom. With that determination, he stepped outdoors where the cold of early spring still lingered. The subject he chose was an almond tree. Almond trees bloom earlier than any other fruit tree at the end of winter, making them a symbol of "new life" and "hope."

In mid-February, he set to work at the canvas in the crisp air. Much like in Japanese ukiyo-e prints, he boldly cropped out the trunk, depicting only the branches. Applying thick layers of paint, he meticulously rendered each individual petal. "It was meant to be the best thing I had done—painted with the utmost patience and calm," he would later reflect in a letter.