Van Gogh’s Almond Blossom: Painted for a Newborn, a Berlin Pigment, and the Baby Who Founded the Museum

Last updated: May 2026 · By Stanislav Arnautov · Berlin

Van Gogh’s Almond Blossom (February 1890) is the most specifically biographical of all Van Gogh’s major works — not because of its subject matter (almond blossoms on a dark branch against a flat blue sky) but because of the documented chain of human relationships it encodes: it was made for a specific named baby, by a specific uncle in a specific asylum, in a specific Japanese-convention flat blue that uses a specific pigment invented in Berlin in 1704 and brought to Japan through a Dutch trading post, for a baby who later founded the museum that holds the painting. The chain is complete and fully documented. At the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam. DeckArts Berlin from ~$140.

Painted for a Newborn: The Letter to Theo

On 31 January 1890, Theo van Gogh and his wife Jo van Gogh-Bonger had a son. They named him Vincent Willem van Gogh — after his uncle. Vincent van Gogh wrote to Theo from the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence when he received the news of the birth:

Letter 855 (to Theo, early February 1890): “I started right away to make a picture for you to hang in your bedroom — large branches of white almond blossoms against a blue sky.”

The painting was begun immediately upon receiving the news of Vincent Willem’s birth. Van Gogh painted it specifically to hang in the baby’s bedroom — not in the adult spaces of the apartment but in the room where the baby would sleep, looking upward. The composition’s specific design was determined by this intended position: the branches are viewed from directly below, looking upward through them toward the flat blue sky. This is the view from a recumbent position — the view from a crib or a bed, looking up at blossoms against the sky. Van Gogh designed the Almond Blossom specifically for viewing from the position of the infant lying on his back in his crib, looking upward.

The painting was completed in February 1890 and sent to Theo in Amsterdam. It hung in Theo’s apartment, as intended. Theo wrote back that Jo had been moved to tears by the painting. Jo van Gogh-Bonger (1862–1925) — who after Theo’s death in January 1891 dedicated the rest of her life to cataloguing Van Gogh’s work, editing his letters, and promoting his legacy — kept the Almond Blossom throughout her life. It was the painting she valued most personally. See: Van Gogh Letters — vangoghletters.org.

The Prussian Blue Sky: Berlin, Japan, and Van Gogh

The flat blue sky in the Almond Blossom is Prussian blue (Fe₄[Fe(CN)₆]₃, Berliner Blau) — the first synthetic inorganic pigment in Western art history, invented in Berlin in 1704 by the dye-maker Johann Jacob Diesbach, accidentally, while attempting to produce a red carmine pigment. The Prussian blue reached Japan via the Dutch East India Company (VOC) through the Dejima trading post in Nagasaki approximately around 1820, where it was called Berorin-ai (ベロリン藍, “Berlin blue”). Hokusai adopted it for the Great Wave and the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji from c.1831. Hiroshige used it for the flat sky backgrounds in his plum blossom and cherry blossom prints. Van Gogh studied and copied Hiroshige’s prints in 1887 in Paris — including specifically the flat Prussian blue sky behind blossoms — and adopted the convention directly for the Almond Blossom in February 1890.

The complete transmission of the Prussian blue in the Almond Blossom’s sky: Diesbach’s Berlin workshop (1704) → VOC trade routes to Dejima, Nagasaki (c.1820) → Hiroshige’s flat sky prints (1840s–1850s) → Paris Japonisme movement (1860s–1880s) → Van Gogh’s Hiroshige copies (1887) → the Almond Blossom’s flat blue sky (February 1890, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence) → the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam (1973). DeckArts is in Berlin — the city that invented the pigment that travelled to Japan, inspired the flat sky convention, and arrived in the painting Van Gogh made for his nephew in an asylum in Provence. See: Prussian Blue: Invented Berlin 1704.

The Japanese Convention: Hiroshige and the Flat Blue Sky

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) was the Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print artist whose specific influence on Van Gogh is the most directly documented of any Japanese artist’s influence on the Post-Impressionist movement. Van Gogh made oil-paint copies of two Hiroshige prints in 1887 (Sudden Shower over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Plum Park in Kameido) — translating the woodblock convention’s flat colours directly into oil paint. Both copies are now in the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam. The Plum Park in Kameido copy is the most directly relevant: it depicts dark plum branches in blossom, with small flowers, against a flat Prussian blue sky, viewed from below and to the side — the same formal programme that Van Gogh would adopt for the Almond Blossom three years later, with white almond blossoms on dark branches against the flat Prussian blue sky from directly below.

The specific formal convention Van Gogh adopted from Hiroshige for the Almond Blossom:

• Flat unmodulated sky background: The Japanese woodblock convention of unmodulated flat colour fields — no tonal graduation, no atmospheric perspective, no cloudforms — applied to the sky as a single flat Prussian blue field. This is the opposite of the Western academic tradition’s sky modelling (graduated from light at the horizon to dark at the zenith, with atmospheric perspective creating depth). The flat sky has no depth; it is a surface against which the blossoms are silhouetted.
• Dark branches as linear elements against the flat ground: The branches are depicted as bold dark linear elements against the flat blue ground — the ukiyo-e’s bold dark outline convention applied to botanical subjects. The branches are not modelled three-dimensionally; they are flat dark lines and curves.
• Upward-looking viewpoint: The view from directly below, looking up through the branches toward the sky. This is a specifically Japanese compositional convention — the Western academic tradition almost never depicts subjects from directly below; the Japanese botanical print tradition (Hiroshige’s plum blossoms, Hokusai’s cherry blossoms) frequently uses the upward-looking position to create compositions where the sky is the primary surface and the blossoms are silhouetted against it.

The result of these three conventions in the Almond Blossom: a painting that reads as simultaneously Western (oil on canvas, traditional support) and Japanese (flat blue sky, bold dark branches, upward view) — the most complete synthesis of the two traditions in Van Gogh’s work. See: Japanese Art for Home Decor 2026.

The Composition: Upward-Looking, Recumbent Viewing

The Almond Blossom’s compositional programme is the most specifically position-determined of any Van Gogh work: it was designed to be seen from below (from the position of a person lying on their back in a bed or crib) rather than from the standard standing or seated viewing position. The canvas dimensions: 73.3 × 92.4 cm. The composition extends the dark branches horizontally across the full width of the canvas, with the blossoms distributed across the blue sky background. There is no ground plane, no horizon, no spatial recession: only the flat blue sky and the dark branches with their white blossoms.

The specific visual programme from the recumbent position: looking upward at the Almond Blossom from a bed or crib, the white blossoms appear to hang above the viewer against the flat blue sky — exactly as actual almond blossoms appear when viewed from directly below a blossoming tree in early spring. The painting does not represent the experience of seeing blossoms from a distance; it recreates the specific experience of lying under a blossoming tree and looking upward through the branches. This is the most specific compositional programme in Van Gogh’s botanical works: not a still life, not a landscape, but the specific perceptual programme of the recumbent infant looking upward at the world above them.

For domestic display: the Almond Blossom is the most specifically above-bed and above-crib art in the DeckArts range. Its composition was designed for viewing from the lying position. Hung above the bed at 165–175 cm centre — the position from which a person in bed looks upward — the painting recreates its intended viewing condition. See: Best Wall Art for a Bedroom 2026; Wall Art for a Nursery 2026.

Vincent Willem Van Gogh: The Baby Who Founded the Museum

Vincent Willem van Gogh (31 January 1890 – 28 January 1978) was named after his uncle, the painter Vincent van Gogh, who had painted the Almond Blossom specifically for him in February 1890, when Vincent Willem was less than two weeks old. He never met his uncle: Vincent van Gogh died on 29 July 1890, five months after the Almond Blossom was sent to Amsterdam, when Vincent Willem was approximately six months old. Theo van Gogh died six months after Vincent (on 25 January 1891), leaving Vincent Willem an orphan at twelve months old, in the care of his mother Jo van Gogh-Bonger.

Jo van Gogh-Bonger raised Vincent Willem and preserved the entire collection of his father Theo’s Van Gogh paintings and letters. She spent the rest of her life cataloguing the work, editing and publishing Vincent’s letters to Theo (first published 1914, in Dutch), and promoting Van Gogh’s legacy internationally. The Van Gogh collection — including the Almond Blossom — was kept together and not sold during Jo’s lifetime.

Vincent Willem van Gogh grew up to become an engineer (he worked in the Dutch engineering industry for most of his career). He inherited the Van Gogh collection from his mother at her death in 1925 and, as the collection’s owner, became increasingly involved in the question of where and how to house it permanently. In 1960, Vincent Willem donated the collection to the Dutch state on the condition that a dedicated museum would be built to house it. The Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam opened on 2 June 1973, in a building designed by Gerrit Rietveld (the De Stijl architect of the Rietveld-Schröder House in Utrecht). Vincent Willem was present at the opening, aged 83. He died on 28 January 1978, aged 87, having seen the museum established.

The Almond Blossom was the painting Jo van Gogh-Bonger valued most personally and the painting that Vincent Willem inherited with the deepest biographical significance. It is permanently installed at the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam, where it has been since the museum’s opening in 1973 — 81 years after it was painted for the infant who would grow up to give it a permanent home.

The Asylum: Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, February 1890

Van Gogh painted the Almond Blossom in February 1890, during his one-year voluntary stay at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (May 1889–May 1890). He had been at the asylum for approximately nine months when he received the news of Vincent Willem’s birth on 31 January 1890. He painted the Almond Blossom immediately — “right away,” in his own words.

The specific working conditions: Van Gogh was in a period of relatively stable health in February 1890. The acute crises that had characterised the earlier months of his stay (including the self-injury in Arles in December 1888, which preceded his admission to the asylum) had become less frequent; he was working productively. The asylum’s garden and the surrounding landscape of Saint-Rémy were in early spring condition in February — the almond trees were the first trees to blossom in the Provençal spring, and their white blossoms against the February sky would have been among the first signs of the new season at the asylum. Van Gogh was at the asylum looking at a spring landscape and had just received news of a new life. He painted the spring’s first blossoms against the flat blue sky for the newborn child named after him.

The Almond Blossom was the last major successful work Van Gogh completed at the asylum before a relapse in March–April 1890. After the relapse, he left the asylum in May 1890 and moved to Auvers-sur-Oise. He died in Auvers on 29 July 1890. See: Van Gogh: Complete Biography.

Van Gogh’s Final Year: February to July 1890

The five months between the Almond Blossom (February 1890) and Van Gogh’s death (29 July 1890) constitute the final productive phase of his career: a period of extraordinary creative output in two locations (Saint-Rémy and Auvers-sur-Oise) during which he produced approximately 70 paintings in approximately 70 days. This is the most concentrated productive period in Van Gogh’s entire career.

The Saint-Rémy final works (March–May 1890): the Blossoming Almond Tree variations; the Irises (sent to Theo in March); various landscape and garden paintings. The Auvers period (May–July 1890): the most widely discussed final period in art history, during which Van Gogh produced the Wheatfields Under Thunderclouds, the Wheatfield with Crows, the Church at Auvers, and approximately 65 other works in 70 days. He died on 29 July 1890, two days after a gunshot wound to the chest. His last letter to Theo (written approximately three days before his death) ends: “Well, my own work, I am risking my life for it and my reason has half foundered because of it.”

The Almond Blossom was the last gift Van Gogh gave to his family. It was one of the first major works in the Van Gogh collection that Jo van Gogh-Bonger mentioned in her writings as personally significant. It is now the most personally biographical Van Gogh work at the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam. See: Van Gogh: 900 Paintings, One Sale.

The Complete Transmission: Berlin 1704 to Amsterdam 1973

The Almond Blossom encodes the most complete and most specifically documented biographical transmission chain in the DeckArts range. The chain has eight links, each fully documented:

1. Berlin, 1704: Johann Jacob Diesbach accidentally invents Prussian blue (Berliner Blau) while attempting to make red carmine pigment. The first synthetic inorganic pigment.
2. Japan, c.1820: Prussian blue reaches Dejima, Nagasaki, via Dutch VOC trade. Japanese name: Berorin-ai (ベロリン藍, “Berlin blue”).
3. Japan, 1840s–1850s: Hiroshige uses Berorin-ai for flat sky backgrounds in plum blossom and botanical prints.
4. Paris, 1887: Van Gogh studies and copies Hiroshige’s prints, including specifically the flat Prussian blue sky behind blossoms in the Plum Park in Kameido.
5. Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, February 1890: Van Gogh paints the Almond Blossom for the newborn Vincent Willem, using the Hiroshige flat Prussian blue sky convention. The sky is Berlin blue in a Japanese convention in an asylum in Provence.
6. Amsterdam, 1890–1891: The Almond Blossom is received by Theo and hung in the baby’s room. Theo dies six months later; Jo preserves the collection.
7. Amsterdam, 1925–1973: Vincent Willem van Gogh inherits the collection at Jo’s death. He donates it to the Dutch state in 1960 on the condition that a museum be built.
8. Amsterdam, 2 June 1973: The Van Gogh Museum opens. The Almond Blossom, painted for the infant Vincent Willem 83 years earlier, is permanently installed in the museum the adult Vincent Willem founded. DeckArts ships from Berlin — the city that invented the pigment in 1704.

Almond Blossom for Home Decor

The Almond Blossom’s specific domestic value is its combination of three qualities that are rare in a single classical art piece: botanical calm (the white blossoms against the flat blue sky); upward-looking composition (designed for viewing from a recumbent position, which makes it specifically appropriate for above-bed and above-crib positions); and permanent biographical inexhaustibility (the complete eight-link transmission chain from Berlin 1704 to Amsterdam 1973, fully documented).

Primary position: above the bedroom bed at 165–175 cm on warm white or sage green. The most specifically position-appropriate classical art in the DeckArts range for above-bed display: its composition was designed for viewing from a recumbent upward-looking position. The flat Prussian blue sky and the white blossoms above the bed on warm white is the most calming and most botanically spring-appropriate bedroom primary. Safety wire mandatory. See: Best Wall Art for a Bedroom 2026.

Second position: above the nursery crib on warm white. The most specifically biography-appropriate nursery art: painted for a newborn, designed for viewing from the lying-down position, using a Japanese convention that the painter studied specifically to paint spring for a new life. Above the crib: the spring’s first blossoms above the infant’s position, as Van Gogh intended. See: Wall Art for a Nursery 2026.

Third position: kitchen above the sink or side wall on warm white or sage green. The botanical spring programme in the domestic cooking space: the flat blue sky and the white blossoms above the kitchen’s primary domestic activity position.

Wall colour: warm white (canonical) or sage green (botanical complement). On warm white: the flat Prussian blue sky creates a cool event from the warm neutral; the white blossoms are continuous with the warm white wall but distinguished from it by the dark branches. The most historically specific and most domestically versatile installation. On sage green: the flat Prussian blue sky from the botanical pale green creates a cool-from-botanical-light event; the most specifically Japandi and Scandinavian botanical installation. See: Scandinavian Art for Home Decor 2026.

Prussian Blue: Berlin 1704 · Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam

Four Complete Almond Blossom Programmes

Programme 1: The Botanical Spring Bedroom Above Bed (~$140)
Warm white above-bed wall + Almond Blossom single (~$140) at 165–175 cm centre above the bed (safety wire mandatory) + warm cream linen bedding + white oak bedside table + 2700K bedside lamp. The flat Prussian blue sky and the white blossoms above the sleeping position: painted for a newborn, designed for the recumbent upward view, using a Berlin pigment in a Japanese convention from an asylum in Provence. Total art: ~$140. See: Best Wall Art for a Bedroom 2026.

Programme 2: The Nursery Botanical Primary (~$140)
Warm white or sage green nursery wall + Almond Blossom single (~$140) above the crib at 155–175 cm (not directly above the crib at head height; on the wall at the crib’s side or at the room’s primary accent position) + white wood crib + cream and white textiles + warm natural wood floor + 2700K warm ceiling lamp. Van Gogh painted this for a newborn. The infant for whom it was painted founded the museum where it now lives. Total art: ~$140. See: Wall Art for a Nursery 2026.

Programme 3: The Japandi Living Room Botanical Accent (~$370)
Warm white throughout + Great Wave diptych (~$230) above the compact sofa at 155–165 cm (primary Japandi statement; Prussian blue flat colour on warm white) + Almond Blossom single (~$140) above the kitchen side wall or above the bedroom reading chair at 155–165 cm (botanical spring accent; same Prussian blue flat sky in the botanical register). Two Van Gogh-adjacent Prussian blue programmes: water (Great Wave) and botanical spring (Almond Blossom). Total art: ~$370. See: How to Style a Japandi Living Room 2026.

Programme 4: The Two-Position Van Gogh Home (~$280)
Warm white throughout + Almond Blossom single (~$140) above the bedroom bed at 165–175 cm + Starry Night single or triptych above the living room sofa. Or: Almond Blossom (~$140) above the bed + Pearl Earring (~$140) in the hallway. Two biographical programmes: the spring made for a newborn above sleep; the bilateral threshold figure in the passage. Total art from ~$280. See: Van Gogh: Complete Biography.

FAQ

Who was the Almond Blossom painted for?

Van Gogh painted the Almond Blossom in February 1890 at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, specifically for the newborn son of his brother Theo and Jo van Gogh-Bonger — named Vincent Willem van Gogh, after his uncle. Van Gogh wrote to Theo (Letter 855): “I started right away to make a picture for you to hang in your bedroom — large branches of white almond blossoms against a blue sky.” The composition was designed for the recumbent upward-looking position — the view from a crib. Vincent Willem van Gogh, the baby for whom it was painted, later founded the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam in 1973, where the Almond Blossom has been permanently installed since the museum’s opening. DeckArts Almond Blossom single from ~$140.

Why is the sky in the Almond Blossom flat blue?

The flat, unmodulated Prussian blue sky is a direct adoption of the Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print convention — specifically Hiroshige’s plum blossom prints, which Van Gogh copied in Paris in 1887. The Japanese woodblock convention uses flat, unmodulated colour fields without tonal graduation or atmospheric perspective; the sky is a single flat Prussian blue surface. Van Gogh wrote “All my work is founded on Japanese art” (Letter to Theo). The Prussian blue (Berliner Blau, Fe₄[Fe(CN)₆]₃) was invented in Berlin in 1704 by Johann Jacob Diesbach, reached Japan via Dutch VOC traders c.1820 (Japanese name: Berorin-ai, “Berlin blue”), was adopted by Hiroshige (1840s–1850s), studied by Van Gogh (Paris, 1887), and painted in the Almond Blossom (Saint-Rémy, 1890). DeckArts ships from Berlin. See: Prussian Blue: Invented Berlin 1704.

What happened to the baby Van Gogh painted the Almond Blossom for?

Vincent Willem van Gogh (31 January 1890 – 28 January 1978) never met his uncle: Van Gogh died on 29 July 1890, when Vincent Willem was six months old. His father Theo died six months later in January 1891. His mother Jo van Gogh-Bonger raised him and preserved the Van Gogh collection. Vincent Willem grew up to become an engineer. He inherited the collection at Jo’s death in 1925. In 1960, he donated it to the Dutch state on condition that a museum be built. The Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam opened on 2 June 1973; Vincent Willem was present, aged 83. The Almond Blossom — painted for his birth — was permanently installed in the museum he founded. He died in 1978, aged 87. DeckArts Almond Blossom single from ~$140. On warm white above the bedroom bed or nursery.

What is the best wall position for the Almond Blossom?

Above the bedroom bed at 165–175 cm centre on warm white or sage green: the composition was designed for viewing from the recumbent upward-looking position (designed for a baby’s crib), making it the most compositionally appropriate above-bed art in the classical tradition. Safety wire mandatory for any above-bed installation. Also above the nursery crib at 155–165 cm: the most biographically specific nursery art — painted for a newborn, designed for the infant’s upward view, by a painter who died five months after finishing it. Above the kitchen side wall or the bedroom reading chair as a botanical spring accent. On warm white (cool event from warm neutral) or sage green (cool from botanical light; most Japandi/Scandinavian appropriate). 2700K warm LED spot. DeckArts from ~$140. See: Best Wall Art for a Bedroom 2026.

Article Summary

Van Gogh’s Almond Blossom (February 1890, 73.3 × 92.4 cm, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam) is the most specifically biographical domestic art in the DeckArts range, encoding an eight-link transmission chain that is fully documented from Berlin 1704 to Amsterdam 1973: Diesbach invents Prussian blue in Berlin (1704) → VOC brings it to Dejima/Japan as Berorin-ai c.1820 → Hiroshige uses it for flat sky botanical prints (1840s–1850s) → Van Gogh copies Hiroshige in Paris (1887) → Van Gogh paints Almond Blossom for newborn Vincent Willem in an asylum (February 1890) → Theo dies; Jo preserves the collection (1891) → Vincent Willem donates to Dutch state (1960) → Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam opens with Almond Blossom permanently installed (1973). The composition was specifically designed for viewing from the recumbent upward-looking position (for a baby in a crib looking up): the flat blue sky and the white blossoms are experienced from below, through the branches, looking upward. Van Gogh used Hiroshige’s flat Prussian blue sky convention (the Japanese flat-colour woodblock programme, using the Berlin-invented Berorin-ai) for the sky. The baby for whom it was painted founded the museum where it now lives. DeckArts ships from Berlin — the city that invented the pigment in 1704. Almond Blossom single (~$140): warm white or sage green above the bedroom bed at 165–175 cm or above the nursery at 155–165 cm. 2700K warm LED. 30-day return.

About the Author

Stanislav Arnautov is the founder of DeckArts and a creative director from Ukraine based in Berlin.

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