It’s day seventeen of the Culture Tourist Art Blogmas. And I’m sharing the work of one of my favourite artists and paintings, Vincent van Gogh and his Almond Blossoms.

Art Blogmas 2021

Vincent van Gogh is one of the most famous painters in the world. However, his career was very short, and he painted for only ten years. Today’s painting is one of his later works. He painted it in the last year of his life, 1890.

Read more: Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam Highlights

Vincent van Gogh: Almond Blossoms

⤷ Where is it? Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Vincent van Gogh painted this painting after receiving a letter from his brother Theo, In which he told him he got a son. He named his son after Vincent and asked him if he would like to be a godfather to a little boy. Vincent was thrilled, so he started to work on a special present for his nephew – this painting.

Both colours and the motif symbolise a child and a new life. Initially, the flowers on a painting were pink, but the pigment faded during the time. So, originally, the picture had a lovely combination of light blue and light pink, colours often associated with babies.

However, the meaning behind the almond tree is even more meaningful. Almond is one of the trees that blossoms the earliest, already in February. With its delicate flowers, it symbolises new life. Vincent wanted to include that meaning in his painting, too.

His idea was to display the painting above the baby’s crib. That way, the little boy could look at the flowers and blue sky behind them from his bed. Knowing that, we notice how the perspective seems as someone was lying on the grass below the tree and is looking to it from the ground. Precisely that was Van Gogh’s idea with this painting.

If you don’t want to miss other paintings I will share with you in this year’s Art Blogmas, be sure to check in here tomorrow at 7:30 am. Or, follow along on the Culture Tourist Facebook page and Instagram profile.

Read more about the places linked to life and work of Vincent van Gogh:

Visiting Kröller-Müller Museum
Vincent van Gogh in the Netherlands
Vincent van Gogh in Belgium
Vincent van Gogh in Paris 
Vincent van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise
Vincent van Gogh in Arles
Vincent van Gogh in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence