1890

The record dates Branches with Almond Blossom to 1890, the last year. That year divides in the chronology: it opens at Saint-Rémy and, from the spring, continues at Auvers-sur-Oise until the painter's death on 29 July. The record here gives a year and not a month, so this entry places the canvas in 1890 and leaves the town unstated.

What the record gives

The canvas measures 92 x 73.5 cm, an upright, and it is held by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The measured palette returns turquoise and blue as the dominant families — a rare reading. Blue is a dominant family in only ten of the eighty-four works dated 1890, and turquoise in a handful across the entire catalogue.

Blossom, first and last

Flowering branches are an Arles motif that returns at the very end. Thirteen works dated 1888 carry "blossom" in the title, then a single one through the whole of 1889, then four in 1890: this canvas, Blossoming Acacia Branches, Chestnut Trees in Blossom and Blossoming Chestnut Branches. Almond in particular appears in both 1888 and 1890, in two different periods. The record supports the recurrence; it says nothing about the occasion for it.