Almond Branches in Bloom by Vincent van Gogh

Almond Branches in Bloom by Vincent van Gogh is a famous series of paintings from 1888 to 1890

The photograph included here is specifically the Almond Blossoms artwork from 1890, though there were several related paintings in this series. This painting is now on display in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Alternative uses of this type of tree included detailed still life paintings with individual branches placed in vases, as well as full scale coverage of entire trees.

This species of tree allowed Van Gogh to use bright colours, which were very much a part of his style during this later stage in his career. Whites and pinks formed the flowers throughout most of this series, colours suited to his post-impressionist approach. This oil painting by famous Dutch artist Van Gogh in San Remy is amongst his most popular from his career. This website examines the strengths of this paintng and also puts it into context within the overall career of this innovative post-impressionist painter from the Netherlands.

There are images of the painting included here and these are accompanied by links from where you can buy your own reproduction copy to add to your home. Vincent van Gogh is amongst the best known artists currently but he struggled during his own lifetime to achieve academic acceptance and it was only his brother who really showed much of an interest in paintings such as these. The artist's output was prolific but sadly his achievements during his lifetime were not and this ensured Vincent lived a very creative but frustrated life.

Almond Branches in Bloom is a stylish work with a clear similarity in style to Japanese paintings, and this approach was very much appreciated by artist Van Gogh who continued it into several of his other paintings besides just this one. The combination of the charming Japanese style along with this particular choice of subject and it's highly natural feel makes it an instantly popular painting.

The colour choices of the artist in this painting are also inspired and help to bring the branches and flowers to life, with brightness typical of the post-impressionist movement, of which he was a major part. There are several versions of this painting to best suit your taste, with some prefering greater detail on the pretty flowers that sit on each of the blooming branches.

The beauty and calmness of this and many other Van Gogh paintings clearly contrasts to the mind of this troubled character who used art as a way of distracting himself from his own social problems which sadly caused him great problems throughout his life. Van Gogh produced more and more paintings as his illnesses worsened and eventually was beaten by them but this efficiency means we all have more paintings to appreciate from his career.

The artists amongst you, whatever your level, should check out the YouTube video below. It demonstrates how to paint your own reproduction of the original, to atleast the standard of a good amateur artist. At the very least, it gives an interesting insight into the way in which Van Gogh may have gone about creating this painting.

Dutch art has long since held great importance within European art but mainly for more traditional art movements such as the Dutch Golden Age, rather than the post-impressionist and other contemporary movements which followed in the 19th and 20th century. Van Gogh, however, shows that the qualities of Dutch art continued on into the 20th century.

San Remy was the location for Van Gogh's paintings included here and the fuller name is Saint Remy-de-Provence which can be found close to Marseille in southern France. The exceptional climate of this region is underlined by the flowers found in the paintings as well as the fantastic blues which set the background of these works. It is easy to imagine a clear sky when the artist was capturing these stylish plants in his work.

Colours were very important to Van Gogh and this made locations like the south of France ideal for capturing brightness that was key to most post-impressionist artists. Blue was also a key choice for Van Gogh too and it seemed sensible to find places like San Remy which had a natural abundance of these colours within it's scenery.

This artwork is undeniably Japanese in style and those who appreciate this work would be well advised to further study notable Japanese artists as well as specific Japanese media such as wooden blocks on which many of this type of art was created. Van Gogh was one of several leading artists of the time who became inspired by non-European ideas which at the time was relatively hard to study without visiting the places themselves.

Almond Branches in Bloom by Vincent van Gogh makes an ideal framed art print in most homes and certainly come recommended from us. Art.com who are linked to from here have provided us with several art work reproductions over the years and we are more than happy to recommend their service which continues to be the market-leader, in terms of art print and poster reproductions of Van Gogh classics like this.

We are happy to draw more exposure to this previously lesser-known Van Gogh painting and tend to find that many immediately love it having never seen it before, until visiting this very website! Van Gogh's career was huge and varied and people should take the time where possible to really study the whole catalogue of his works to cover this great depth, with our favourite topics including his trees, windmills and these Japanese style paintings too.

After the success of this small website dedicated to Almond Branches in Bloom and Almond Blossom, we aim to bring you more beautiful Vincent van Gogh paintings in the future too and have a huge collection to pick from. Our ambition is to steer clear of the likes of Sunflowers and Potato Eaters which everyone is aware of, and continue to bring greater exposure to many of the best lesser-known paintings that this Dutch master produced during his short but impressive career.