Van Gogh Blossom Round Filled Cushion - Sage

This print is based on the painting Almond Blossom. Van Gogh painted this self-portrait in the winter of 1887–88, when he had been living in Paris for almost two years. The work reveals that he had studied the dotting technique of the Pointillists and applied it in his own, original way. He placed the short stripes of paint in different directions. Where they follow the outline of his head, they form a kind of halo. The painting is also one of Van Gogh's boldest colour experiments in Paris. He placed complementary colours alongside one another using long brushstrokes: blue and orange in the background, and red and green in the beard and eyes. The colours reinforce one another. Due to the fading of the red pigment, the purple strokes are now blue, rendering the contrast with the yellow less powerful.