Van Gogh’s Almond Blossom: The Only Canonical Nursery Gift Painting, the Hiroshige Source, and Why Every Room Wants It

Last updated: May 2026 · By Stanislav Arnautov · Berlin

Vincent van Gogh painted Almond Blossom (Amandelbloesem, February 1890, oil on canvas, 73.3 × 92.4 cm) at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence for a specific and personal reason: his brother Theo’s son had just been born, and the baby had been named Vincent Willem — after him. Van Gogh wrote to Theo that he wanted to give the painting to the new baby for his room. The upward-looking composition — white almond blossoms against a flat Prussian blue sky, seen from below as if lying in a crib looking up through a flowering tree — was designed for a specific viewer in a specific position. The painting is in the permanent collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which was founded by the same Vincent Willem for whom the painting was made. DeckArts Berlin from ~$140.

The Painting: February 1890, a Baby, a Brother

Amandelbloesem (Almond Blossom, February 1890, oil on canvas, 73.3 × 92.4 cm, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam) was painted over four days in late January or early February 1890, when Van Gogh received news from Theo that his son had been born on 31 January 1890 and named Vincent Willem. Van Gogh’s response was immediate and specific: he wrote to Theo that he had immediately begun a painting “for the little one’s room” and that it was the best thing he had made during his stay at Saint-Rémy.

The painting was made with extraordinary care: while much of Van Gogh’s Saint-Rémy work was painted rapidly and with the expressive agitation that characterises his asylum period, Almond Blossom is unusually calm, deliberate, and precise. The flat Prussian blue sky has no painterly texture; the almond branches are rendered with specific botanical attention; the blossoms are individually characterised at different stages of opening. The painting was made as a gift for a baby — for a specific viewer whose first experience of the world would be looking upward from a horizontal position, through a ceiling or through a tree. Van Gogh designed the composition specifically for this viewing position.

The specific biographical circumstances of February 1890: Van Gogh had been at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum since May 1889 (he had committed himself voluntarily five weeks after the crisis in Arles). He was between periods of severe crisis: the autumn of 1889 had included a major episode in which he consumed turpentine and paint; the spring of 1890 would include another episode shortly after he left Saint-Rémy for Auvers-sur-Oise. The Almond Blossom was painted during a period of relative stability between these crises, and the specific quality of the painting — its unusual calm and deliberateness — reflects the emotional register of receiving news of his nephew’s birth: a point of orientation in the chaos of the asylum period. As the Van Gogh Museum’s scholarly context notes, the painting is one of the most emotionally specific in Van Gogh’s entire oeuvre — a gift from an uncle to a nephew who would not see it for years.

The Japanese Source: Hiroshige and the Flat Blue Sky

The specific compositional choice that makes Almond Blossom immediately recognisable as a Japanese-influenced work: the flat Prussian blue sky. In the European oil painting tradition, skies have depth — atmospheric perspective creates a gradual transition from darker blue at the zenith to paler, more atmospheric blue at the horizon; clouds and light effects create spatial depth in the sky zone. Van Gogh’s Almond Blossom sky is not like this. It is flat — a uniform deep Prussian blue field with no depth cues, no atmospheric gradation, no spatial recession. This is the Japanese woodblock print convention of flat colour, and Van Gogh derived it specifically from Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858).

Van Gogh had been collecting and studying Japanese woodblock prints since 1885 in Antwerp and subsequently in Paris, where his collection grew to several hundred prints. He was particularly drawn to Hiroshige’s “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo” series (1856–1858), which frequently employed the compositional device of looking through close-foreground natural elements (branches, rushes, falling rain) toward distant landscape elements. Van Gogh wrote specifically about Hiroshige in his letters, naming him as an influence and noting that the Japanese ability to depict nature with “the simplest possible means” was what he was trying to achieve in his own work.

The Almond Blossom’s upward-looking through branches composition is a direct application of Hiroshige’s through-foreground-toward-distance device, adapted from the standard Hiroshige horizontal format to an upward-looking vertical orientation. Van Gogh wrote to his sister Wil: “I wanted to do something that would give pleasure, a little like what the Japanese do.” The Japandi character of Almond Blossom is not a retrospective interpretation — it is Van Gogh’s stated programme. The Van Gogh Museum’s story page for Almond Blossom covers the Japanese influence in detail.

Prussian Blue: The Same Pigment as the Great Wave

The flat blue sky in Almond Blossom is Prussian blue — ferric ferrocyanide (Fe₄[Fe(CN)₆]₃), the same chemical compound as the dominant blue in Hokusai’s Great Wave (c.1831) and Van Gogh’s own Starry Night (June 1889). Prussian blue was invented in Berlin in 1704 by Johann Jacob Diesbach; it reached Japan via Dutch East India Company trade routes c.1820 and was adopted by Hiroshige and Hokusai in the 1820s–1840s. Van Gogh, painting in Saint-Rémy in February 1890, used the same Berlin-invented pigment that Hiroshige had used to influence him.

The specific visual quality of Prussian blue (~495–500 nm) in the Almond Blossom context: as the flat sky background behind white blossoms, the Prussian blue reads as the maximum cool-neutral ground from which the warm white blossoms advance. The white blossoms are the warmest element in the composition (warm white, approximately 3,000–3,200K); the Prussian blue sky is the coolest element (approximately 460–490 nm). The contrast between the warm white blossoms and the cool blue sky is the painting’s chromatic argument — spring (warm) from cool background, the same seasonal opposition that makes the Japanese cherry blossom tradition so specific.

In a Japandi or Scandinavian domestic room on warm white walls: the Prussian blue of the Almond Blossom’s sky is the room’s single cool chromatic event — the Japandi one-accent formula perfectly realised in a work with Japanese compositional origin, botanical spring subject, and warm-on-cool botanical chromatic structure.

Van Gogh’s Letters: What He Said About It

Van Gogh wrote extensively about Almond Blossom in his letters to Theo and to his sister Wil. The key letters are available through the Van Gogh Letters project at the Van Gogh Museum.

Letter 854 (c. January 31–February 1, 1890, to Theo): “I immediately started a canvas for him [the new baby] to hang in their bedroom, big branches of white almond blossom against a blue sky. I’m sure you must still have the Japanese woodblock I have, which represents a branch of almond blossom — that’s what I wanted to do, and now I’m actually painting it.” The specific reference to the Japanese woodblock print is Van Gogh’s own documentation of the Hiroshige influence: the painting was made with a specific Japanese reference in hand or in memory.

Letter to Wil (c. February 1890): “I wanted to do something that would give pleasure, and that would make them feel that in the midst of all this difficulty, people who love each other are still there — a little like what the Japanese do.” The specific emotional content of the commission: it was made to communicate love and the continued presence of the painter to the brother and sister-in-law through a period of difficulty (Van Gogh’s asylum stay, the distance, the health crises).

Letter 856 (c. February 10, 1890, to Theo): “The Almond Blossom — it’s the best and most patiently worked painting that I have done here in the room or garden.” Van Gogh’s own assessment: this was his best Saint-Rémy painting. The care and patience he noted in its making correspond to the specific quality of the composition — the unusual deliberateness of the flat blue sky, the individually characterised blossoms, the precise branch rendering.

Wabi-Sabi: Botanical Imperfection and the Japandi Formula

The Almond Blossom’s most Japandi-specific quality is its botanical imperfection in the wabi-sabi sense. The blossoms are not idealised — they are at different stages of opening: some are tight buds, some are half-open with petals spread at 45 degrees, some are fully open, and some (in the more finished areas of the composition) are browning at the petal edges — already beginning the transition from bloom to fall. This botanical specificity and imperfection is the wabi-sabi quality: beauty in the imperfect and transient, the specific rather than the ideal, the one February morning’s specific condition of one specific almond tree’s specific branches.

The upward-looking composition is itself wabi-sabi in its formal structure: it shows the branches from below, as they actually look to a person lying under a tree — not the idealised botanical illustration’s frontal elevation view, but the specific, slightly disorienting, perspective-distorted view of someone physically underneath the branches. This is the “seeing things as they are” quality that Japanese aesthetics values in the specific rather than the generalised.

For Japandi and Scandinavian rooms: the Almond Blossom’s botanical imperfection and upward-looking perspective correspond to both the Japanese wabi-sabi preference for natural imperfection and the Scandinavian preference for seasonal botanical subjects that connect the interior to the natural world’s cycles. The painting is not a decoration; it is a seasonal presence. As Dezeen’s interior design coverage consistently notes, the most enduring interior design choices are those that connect the domestic space to natural cycles rather than to fashion cycles. Almond Blossom does this with specific biographical and botanical depth.

The Van Gogh Museum: Founded by the Nephew

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam was founded by Vincent Willem van Gogh (31 January 1890 – 28 January 1978) — the exact person for whom Van Gogh painted Almond Blossom. Vincent Willem inherited the collection of approximately 400 Van Gogh paintings, 500 drawings, and 700 letters that his mother Johanna van Gogh-Bonger had spent decades preserving and promoting after Theo’s death in January 1891. In 1962, Vincent Willem established the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, which opened the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 1973.

The museum holds the Almond Blossom in its permanent collection — a painting made for the person who later built the museum that holds it. The biographical loop is one of the most specific in Western art history: the painting was made for a baby; the baby grew up to build the museum; the museum holds the painting. The Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam is the largest collection of Van Gogh’s works in the world and consistently one of the most visited museums in the Netherlands. The museum’s collection page for Almond Blossom includes detailed scholarly commentary on the Japanese influence, the letters, and the painting’s making.

Almond Blossom on a Skateboard Deck: The Upward-Looking Composition

The Almond Blossom single deck (~$140) is the most specifically upward-looking composition at DeckArts — and the narrow vertical format of the skateboard deck (85 cm tall, 20 cm wide) corresponds naturally to the upward perspective of the original painting’s viewing position. The deck presents a vertical crop of the horizontal painting’s centre section: the most densely blossomed section of the branches, with the flat Prussian blue sky behind, and the specific botanical variety of blossoms (buds, half-open, fully open) that characterises the original’s wabi-sabi botanical imperfection.

On warm white walls under 2700K warm LED: the Prussian blue sky is the room’s single cool chromatic event; the white blossoms advance from the blue as warm botanical events; the warm amber of the Canadian maple grain at the deck’s edges participates in the room’s warm neutral palette. The complete warm-neutral-cool botanical Japandi formula is in one single 20 cm object: warm amber maple (warm), warm white blossoms (warm-botanical), Prussian blue sky (cool), warm white wall behind (warm neutral ground).

Above a crib or above a bed: the upward-looking composition meets the natural upward gaze of a viewer in a horizontal position — the baby in the crib, or the adult lying in bed looking up. Van Gogh designed this viewing orientation deliberately; the DeckArts installation above a crib or above a bed realises the specific viewing relationship for which the painting was made.

Van Gogh Almond Blossom — Single Deck (~$140)

Only canonical nursery gift painting · Japanese composition from Hiroshige · Prussian blue Berlin 1704 · nephew founded Van Gogh Museum · UV archival 100+ years · Canadian maple · ships Berlin

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Room-by-Room Installation Guide

Nursery above the crib (primary — the canonical installation): Single deck (~$140) on warm white above the crib at 165–170 cm centre height. The upward-looking composition meets the baby’s upward gaze from the crib — the specific viewing orientation for which Van Gogh designed the painting. White oak crib, natural linen bedding, warm LED 2700K from a directed ceiling track spot. The Prussian blue sky is the nursery’s single cool chromatic event on warm white. Full nursery guide: Skateboard Wall Art for a Nursery and Children’s Room.

Bedroom above the bed (Japandi or Scandinavian): Single deck (~$140) on warm white above the bed at 165–170 cm centre, or 15–20 cm above headboard top. The upward-looking botanical spring composition meets the viewer’s natural upward gaze from a reclining position. White oak or light ash bed frame, natural undyed linen bedding, warm LED 2700K bedside lamps. The Prussian blue sky is the bedroom’s single cool event on warm white. Full bedroom guide: Best Bedroom Wall Art Ideas 2026.

Living room Japandi (above compact sofa or console, warm white): Single deck (~$140) on warm white above a compact sofa (90–110 cm) or above a white oak console table. One cool botanical accent in a warm-neutral Japandi room. Warm white walls, white oak furniture, undyed linen, warm LED 2700K. The Japandi formula at its most specific: Prussian blue botanical spring, warm natural materials, one accent. Full Japandi guide: Japandi Wall Art Ideas 2026: The One-Accent Rule.

Hallway end wall: Single deck (~$140) on warm white at 155–165 cm centre. Botanical spring at the threshold: the almond tree’s February flowering — the first flowering of the year, before leaves appear — is specifically a threshold-season event. The almond blossom at the domestic threshold: the optimistic and seasonal threshold installation. Full hallway guide: Wall Art Ideas for a Hallway in 2026.

Bathroom beside the washbasin: Single deck (~$140) on warm white tile at 155–165 cm centre. Canadian maple is moisture-stable; Prussian blue botanical spring suits the domestic water room. Less contextually specific than the Birth of Venus (which has the water-and-goddess connection) but more Japandi-compatible. Full bathroom guide: Skateboard Wall Art for a Bathroom.

Housewarming gift (new home or new baby): Almond Blossom single (~$140) is the most biographically specific wall art gift for a new baby. Gift card: “Van Gogh painted this in February 1890 for his newborn nephew’s nursery in the asylum at Saint-Rémy. He designed the upward-looking composition for a baby in a crib. His nephew later founded the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, where this painting is now. Welcome to the world.” Full gift guide: Best Housewarming Gifts for a New Home in 2026.

Works That Pair with Almond Blossom

Hokusai Great Wave: The Prussian Blue Pair. Almond Blossom (Prussian blue flat sky from 1890) and the Great Wave (Prussian blue dominant from c.1831) share the same pigment — the same Berlin 1704 compound in two different cultural applications (Japanese woodblock print and French-inspired oil painting) sixty years apart. Together on warm white as the Prussian Blue Ascent staircase sequence or as a Japandi gallery: Prussian blue botanical spring (Almond Blossom) + Prussian blue natural water force (Great Wave). See: Hokusai Great Wave Wall Art: The Berlin Pigment, 30,000 Works.

Van Gogh Starry Night single: Two Van Gogh works from adjacent months: Almond Blossom (February 1890) and Starry Night (June 1889). Both from the Saint-Rémy period; both Prussian blue dominant; both upward-looking (branches toward sky / village toward cosmic sky). Almond Blossom (day, spring, botanical) + Starry Night single (night, summer, cosmic). The two temporal registers of Van Gogh’s asylum sky: the daytime spring flowering and the nighttime swirling stars. See: Van Gogh Starry Night: The Asylum Window, Prussian Blue from Berlin.

Botticelli Birth of Venus: Two warm-palette seasonal arrival works on warm white: Almond Blossom (botanical spring arrival, Prussian blue cool sky) and Birth of Venus (figurative spring arrival, warm ivory from warm neutral). The cool botanical (Almond Blossom) and the warm figurative (Venus) as complementary seasonal programme. See: Botticelli Birth of Venus: Medici Commission, Neoplatonism.

FAQ

Why did Van Gogh paint Almond Blossom?

Van Gogh painted Almond Blossom in February 1890 specifically for the nursery of his newborn nephew Vincent Willem (born 31 January 1890), the son of his brother Theo. He wrote to Theo: “I immediately started a canvas for him — big branches of white almond blossom against a blue sky.” The upward-looking composition was designed for a baby in a crib looking up. The painting is the only canonical Western painting made specifically as a nursery gift. The same Vincent Willem later founded the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam, which now holds the painting. Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam. DeckArts from ~$140.

Where is Van Gogh’s Almond Blossom?

Almond Blossom (February 1890, oil on canvas, 73.3×92.4 cm) is in the permanent collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands — the museum founded by the same Vincent Willem van Gogh for whom the painting was made. The Van Gogh Museum holds the largest collection of Van Gogh’s works in the world. vangoghmuseum.nl — Almond Blossom collection page. DeckArts UV archival reproduction from ~$140.

Why is Van Gogh Almond Blossom the best Japandi wall art?

Three simultaneous Japandi credentials: Japanese compositional origin (upward-looking through foreground branches derived from Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, documented in Van Gogh’s letters); Prussian blue flat sky (the Japandi one-cool-accent colour, applied in the Japanese flat-colour convention with no atmospheric depth); wabi-sabi botanical imperfection (blossoms at different stages of opening — buds, half-open, fully open, browning — the specific imperfect condition of one February morning’s actual flowering). Single deck (~$140) on warm white. DeckArts from ~$140.

Related Guides

• Skateboard Wall Art for a Nursery and Children’s Room
• Japandi Wall Art Ideas 2026: The One-Accent Rule, Great Wave, Almond Blossom
• Best Housewarming Gifts for a New Home in 2026
• Hokusai Great Wave Wall Art: The Berlin Pigment, 30,000 Works
• Van Gogh Starry Night: The Asylum Window, Prussian Blue from Berlin

Article Summary

Van Gogh Almond Blossom: Amandelbloesem February 1890, oil on canvas, 73.3×92.4 cm, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam. Made specifically for newborn nephew Vincent Willem (born 31 January 1890, son of Theo); letter 854 January 31–February 1 1890 (“I immediately started a canvas for him — big branches of white almond blossom against a blue sky”); upward-looking composition designed for baby in crib looking up; most emotionally specific Van Gogh from Saint-Rémy period; most patiently worked (his own assessment letter 856). Japanese source: Hiroshige One Hundred Famous Views of Edo 1856–1858 (through-foreground-toward-distance device); Van Gogh wrote to Wil “I wanted to do something that would give pleasure — a little like what the Japanese do”; flat Prussian blue sky = Japanese flat-colour convention applied to oil on canvas; Van Gogh Museum story page on Japanese influence. Prussian blue: Berlin 1704 Diesbach; Japan via VOC c.1820; Hiroshige and Hokusai adopted 1820s–1840s; Van Gogh February 1890 = same compound as Great Wave c.1831; ~495–500 nm cool blue; one-cool-accent Japandi formula. Letters: letter 854 (nursery gift, Japanese woodblock reference); letter to Wil (Japanese pleasure programme, communication of love across difficulty); letter 856 (best and most patiently worked Saint-Rémy painting). Wabi-sabi: blossoms at different stages (buds, half-open, fully open, browning edges); upward-looking perspective = seeing branches as they look from below, not botanical illustration frontal; botanical imperfection = wabi-sabi specific over idealised; Dezeen interiors coverage of seasonal botanical domestic connection. Van Gogh Museum: founded by Vincent Willem van Gogh (born 31 January 1890, died 28 January 1978); inherited Johanna van Gogh-Bonger’s collection; established Vincent van Gogh Foundation 1962; museum opened Amsterdam 1973; holds the painting made for the person who founded the museum. On deck: most specifically upward-looking composition; narrow vertical format (85×20 cm) corresponds to upward-perspective crop; Prussian blue sky = single cool event; white blossoms = warm botanical; maple grain = warm organic; complete Japandi formula in one 20 cm object. By room: nursery above crib 165–170 cm (canonical — Van Gogh’s intended viewing orientation); bedroom above bed (Japandi/Scandi, reclining upward gaze meets upward composition); living room Japandi above sofa or console; hallway end wall (first spring flowering at threshold); bathroom (moisture-stable); housewarming gift (most biographically specific baby gift). Pairing: Great Wave (Prussian Blue Pair, same Berlin pigment 60 years apart, two cultural applications); Starry Night single (Saint-Rémy day/night pair, Prussian blue botanical spring + cosmic night); Birth of Venus (cool botanical + warm figurative spring arrivals). DeckArts from ~$140. Canadian maple. UV archival 100+ years. Berlin. 30-day return.

About the Author

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