Hope in Blossom

In the October Half Term holiday, I took my son to the Netherlands to see the Van Gogh Museum. We spend most of the time in the wonderful, child-friendly exhibition of Van Gogh's paintings of the Roulins family, who were friends with, and supported Van Gogh when he lived in Arles.

Van Gogh moved to the Asylum at St Remy in May 1889, and created some of his greatest work there. He was going through a period of despair when he found out the news that his brother, Theo's wife Jo had given birth to a child. He wrote the following letters to his brother, and mother about the news and the painting that he would create for the child's bedroom.

‘My dear Theo, 

Today, I received your good news that you are at last a father, that the most critical time is over for Jo, and finally that the little boy is well. That has done me more good and given me more pleasure than I can put into words…’

(1^st February 1890)

… ‘I started right away to make a picture for him, to hang in their bedroom, big branches of white almond blossom against a blue sky…’

(To his Mother, 19^th February 1890)

‘My work was going well, the last canvas of branches in blossom – you will see that it was perhaps the best, the most patiently worked thing I had done, painted with calm and with a greater firmness of touch. And the next day, down like a brute…’

(To Theo 17^th March 1890)

Van Gogh managed to finish the painting, and sent it to his Brother Theo's house, where it did indeed hang above little Vincent Willem Van Gogh's cot, and survived many pillow fights until Vincent Willem, grown up, set up the Van Gogh foundation in Amsterdam, where Almond Blossoms has been ever since.

Visiting the Van Gogh museum can be an overwhelming experience: There are too many paintings that can be appreciated in one visit, and it is sold out almost every day, so there are many other pilgrims to navigate around. My son had, frankly, had enough by the time we left the special exhibiton, but I wanted to show him one last painting.

We got the lift up to the highest floor, then found some blessed calm in front of Almond Blossoms, which was miraculously quiet. There is something sacred about its situation in the museum. Not his final painting, but still the culmination of the galary at it's close. I managed to choke out some information to my son, about how Van Gogh found such beauty in the birth of his Nephew, and that the painting is a lasting tribute to hope.

Van Gogh created one the greatest artworks anyone has created in the space between utter despair. He found hope in the birth of his namesake, and showed the way the blossom springs from dead wood every year. I write this looking out of my window at the deep darkness coming in of the winter and remind myself of the blossoms that will come back every Spring, and the hope that springs eternal if we know where to look for it.

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