Branches with Almond Blossom

Branches with Almond Blossom

Van Gogh’s Branches with Almond Blossom is just one of some variants on the theme of the almond tree in bloom, created between 1888 and 1890 during his time in Arles.

The artist showed up in the Southern French community to recover after a tumultuous time in Paris where he had familiarized himself with the work of the Impressionists and also was tutored in their methods as well as designs. Branches with Almond Blossom is a humble as well as mild work, made as gifts for the freshly born child of his beloved sibling Theo. This reproduction of a Spring scene is a loving expression of hope and also possibilities for renewal that the artist saw in the buds of developing trees.

This period, one of the most productive of his brief career, was driven by his adoration of the results of light that he saw in the French countryside. The lights of the day – as well as the evenings – in Provence influenced Van Gogh to see in the countryside an aesthetic parallel with the Japanese woodblocks and also visual designs that were taking the intellectual beauty parlors of Western as well as Main European by storm. Japonism, the plain subtleties of shade, the structures improved contrasting forces, and also the dazzling interplay between light and also color, can be seen as a dominant influence throughout Van Gogh’s later work.

The artist created studied reproductions of a number of Japanese paintings to study their kind and also structure. Branches with Almond Blossom keep many of the formal qualities of Hiroshige’s work, who was just one of the excellent masters of the woodcut print strategy referred to as Ukiyo-e. The flat plane of the viewpoint, the detailed uniformity of the patterns, and also the shadow-less tranquility of the branches all comparison dramatically with the uneasy brush-strokes of much of Van Gogh’s work of the duration, standing as a beacon of hope and celebrating the arrival of life.

Van Gogh made use of an uncommon point of view and also make-up for this certain painting. He would generally paint trees from his point of view as landscapes are typically created and also had trying out sights from above. Yet in Branches with Almond Blossom, the Post-Impressionist seeks out at the sky, completely omitting the horizon and land. The soft blue sky looks like the calm as well as awesome waters of a fish pond. The light blossoms are like flickers of light upon the canvas.