Blossoming Almond Tree

The Almond Blossom painting by Vincent Van Gogh is a rare desolate bloom that is frozen in time. Classic icons of lilies, sunflowers and melting clocks dominate the art world of Van Gogh in this painting. Most of Van Gogh’s paintings are known for their melancholy mood and auras of loneliness. Therefore, almonds come as a surprise to his usual works of art. Painted as a gift for his nephew, the Van Gogh Almonds Blossom painting is a masterpiece that shows a new artistic and jolly side of the artist.

While the famous Almond Blossom painting is the one he created for his nephew, Van Gogh actually created 14 paintings of blossoming fruit trees. The almond paintings were created during the most creative period of Van Gogh, when he was living in southern France in 1888. All the fourteen paintings depict Japanese, Divisionist and Impressionist influences and represents awakening and hope.

Watching the Van Gogh Almond Blossom, you will admire the artistic beauty that is characteristic of all of the artist’s paintings. While you would expect the ivory white blossoms to draw your eyes, this is not the case. Instead, it is the knots and gnarls of the branches made vivid with the simple brush strokes that will capture your eyes. The Almond Blossom painting brings out a twisted and gnarled mind that has a few blossoms of hope. In simple brush strokes, Van Gogh managed to capture the emotions of the moment when he heard of the birth of his nephew. His myriad of emotional experience is brought out in the simple brush strokes of the tree branches.

Van Gogh departs from his traditional hues, strokes and color pallet to conjure up an entirely different painting in the Almond Blossoms. You can see a momentarily happiness in the midst of all the gloom that Van Gogh was facing. His brother Theo Van Gogh was his best friend. When Theo got a baby boy, Van Gogh felt he had to make a painting for the little one. This led to creation of the Almond Blossom.

Another surprising thing to note in the painting is his choice of colors. Van Gogh masterfully mixes greens, black, pink, white, sepias and turquoise blue to give the painting a melancholic mood. This limited use of color brings forth a rare painting style. The brush strokes that bring the branches to life are engrossing and so is the amount of color used for them.

One of the things that stand out in Van Gogh Almond Blossom is an unusual regularity. The branches of the tress seem to float out in the sky and fade into them. It is unclear where they are set in a vase or are part of a tree as depicted in one of his earlier paintings. Also, the surface of the painting is filled with branches that are made conspicuous with dark contours. This is one of the Japanese influences that are evident in the painting.

Influenced heavily by oriental artists, especially those from Japan, and the soul searching periods in his life, Van Gogh Almond Blossom brings out sheer genius in a troubled man who was happy to hear of the birth of his nephew. Van Gogh originally wanted his nephew to be named after his father. However, his brother Theo had already named the child after him. With this news, Van Gogh set out to paint the Almond Blossom painting.