Almond blossoms

Almond Blossoms is a group of several paintings made in 1888 and 1890 by Vincent van Gogh in Arles and Saint-Rémy, southern France of blossoming almond trees. Flowering trees were
special to van Gogh. They represented awakening and hope. He enjoyed them aesthetically and found joy in painting flowering trees. The works reflect the influence
of Impressionism, Divisionism, and Japanese woodcuts. Almond Blossom was made to celebrate the birth of his nephew and namesake, son of his brother Theo and sister-in-law Jo.

Southern France[edit]
In 1888 van Gogh became inspired in southern France and began the most productive period of his painting career. In connection with his painting Farmhouse in Provence (1888), the National
Gallery of Art notes that:

It was sun that van Gogh sought in Provence, a brilliance and light that would wash out detail and simplify forms, reducing the world around him to the sort of pattern he admired in Japanese
woodblocks. Arles, he said, was "the Japan of the South." Here, he felt, the flattening effect of the sun would strengthen the outlines of compositions and reduce nuances of color to a few vivid
contrasts. Pairs of complements—the red and green of the plants, the woven highlights of oranges and blue in the fence, even the pink clouds that enliven the turquoise sky — almost vibrate
against each other.[1]

When van Gogh arrived in Arles in March 1888 fruit trees in the orchards were about to bloom.[2] The blossoms of the apricot, peach and plum trees motivated him,[3] and within a month he had
created fourteen paintings of blossoming fruit trees.[4] Excited by the subject matter, van Gogh completed nearly one painting a day.[5] Around April 21 he wrote to Theo, that he "will have to seek
something new, now the orchards have almost finished blossoming."[4]

Japonaiserie Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige)

by Vincent van Gogh, 1887
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F371)
Van Gogh's work reflected his interest in Japanese wood block prints. Hiroshige's Plum Park in Kameido demonstrates portrayal of beautiful subject matter with flat patterns of colors and no
shadow. Van Gogh used the term Japonaiserie to express this influence; he collected hundreds of Japanese prints and likened the works of the great Japanese artists, like Hiroshige, to those
of Rembrandt, Hals, and Vermeer. Hiroshige was one of the last great masters of the Japanese genre called ukiyo-e.[6] Van Gogh integrated some of the technical aspects of ukiyo-e into his
work as his two 1887 homages to Hiroshige demonstrates.[7]

The Japanese paintings represent Van Gogh's search for serenity, which he describes in a letter to his sister, "Having as much of this serenity as possible, even though one knows little –
nothing – for certain, is perhaps a better remedy for all diseases than all the things that are sold at the chemist's shop."[8] The southern region and the flowering trees seem to awaken van Gogh
from his doldrums into a state of clear direction, hyper-activity and good cheer. He wrote, "I am up to my ears in work for the trees are in blossom and I want to paint a Provençal orchard of
astonishing gaiety." While in the past a very active period would have drained him, this time he was invigorated.[9]

Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass with a Book[edit]

Vincent wrote to Theo, "Down here it is freezing hard and there is still snow in the countryside," and he has "two small studies of an almond-tree branch already in flower in spite of it." The two
studies are Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass and Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass with a Book.[10]