Amandier en fleurs

At the end of January 1890, Van Gogh's brother Theo wrote to him with news. Theo and his wife had a son, and they had named the boy Vincent, after his uncle. Van Gogh was in the asylum at Saint-Remy in the south of France at the time, and he started this painting almost at once, as a gift for the baby's room. He chose an almond tree because in that part of Provence it flowers first, while winter is barely over, so it stands for new life just beginning. He set the branches flat against a clear blue sky and outlined them in dark strokes, a trick he had learned from the Japanese prints he collected. The family loved it too much to ever sell it, which is why it hangs in the Van Gogh Museum today.