Saint-Remy, a modern take on Van Gogh's Almond Blossom Painting
Named after the town in which Van Gogh painted his Almond Blossom painting, from which this painting was inspired.
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Hillary Holmes
During the artist's famous, self-admitted, stay at the Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy he received news of his nephew's birth. In January of 1890 his brother Theo and his wife Jo welcomed baby Vincent Willem Van Gogh, named after the artist. Van Gogh was so honored and delighted that he set straight to work painting Almond Blossoms as a gift for his namesake.
Vincent would die by a self-inflicted gunshot wound just a few months later, in July of 1890. His nephew would go on to be a steward and protector of his work along with his mother. The younger Vincent would be one of the founders of the Van Gogh museum in 1973, donating Almond Blossoms along with many other significant paintings to establish their founding collection.
I find the quote below to be touching not only in it's joyful simplicity, but also to show the happier side of an artist who is known for his mental illness and tortured life.
‘It does me, too, more good and gives me more pleasure than I could express in words’.
-Vincent van Gogh remarking on his nephew, 1890
