Category: Articles

When Vincent van Gogh began developing as an artist, he most commonly painted three things: figures, landscapes, and still lifes. They mostly consisted of nature, like spanning countrysides or expansive skies, or the hardships of peasants, whom he found immense fascination with and sought to be around despite hailing from a higher class. ^[1] When he wasn’t capturing the working class in his artworks or learning from professionals, he often whisked himself away to experience the solitude of nature, where he spent hours developing the skill and confidence that would refine his style into his bold use of color and distinct, swirling brushstrokes that often make the scenes he capture feel surreal and dreamy.

Amidst his vast collection of outdoor subjects, Almond Blossom doesn’t look a bit out of place. Its beauty is apparent on first glance: long, twisting teal branches carrying copious amounts of bluish-tinted white flowers, all splayed over a background boasting an overwhelming amount of blue. It’s a serene scene that blends in well with the other paintings of almond blossoms, of which many exist by his hand, although something about this is particularly thoughtful and loving.

Van Gogh wasn’t painting in a vacuum. Everything about this painting, from its inception and reason for being, to its color, to its subject, all captured the emotions he felt to reflect a feeling of love. While meaning can rarely be immediately discerned from a first glance, van Gogh’s Almond Blossom serves as a perfect example for  how context can influence a canvas and enhance its visual and figurative beauty through meaning, which can in turn deepen and contribute to the understanding a viewer has regarding an artwork and the artist.

Before discussing the painting, though, it’s best to establish the circumstances of van Gogh’s life at this time. When he first came to Arles, a city in the Provence region of France, in February 1888, it was initially meant to be a short stay; he not only longed for the vibrant colors and warmth the bustling city of Paris couldn’t grant him, but to also recoup his physical strength. ^[2] Once both of those clauses were satisfied, he’d eventually pack up and head to Marseille. However, it was once he arrived that he was taken aback by the overwhelming beauty of Arles and decided to stay put, absorbing and acting on the inspiration the atmosphere gave him.  

Indeed, while the region did wonders for his art, and led to the creation of what is now recognized as some of the best artworks of the 19th century, the region was also home to the peak of his suffering. This was a turbulent time where his physical health declined, and his mental state rapidly worsened, as well. By December 1888, he suffered his first mental breakdown and lobbed off part of his left ear, and by February 1889, a second breakdown, after which he only stayed in Arles a few months longer until he committed himself voluntarily to an asylum in Saint-Rémy in May 1889. This was also after his dream of the Yellow House, a place where fellow artists could commune together and create art in order to stave off loneliness, was extinguished once he and the only other artist there had a physical altercation. ^[3]

These two breakdowns were just the first indicator of a lifelong mood disorder, which rapidly worsened in the upcoming months and was most likely agitated by his ailing health. While the specific condition Van Gogh had is only speculation, during his lifetime, he was diagnosed with epilepsy, where he would suffer from fits if he spent extended periods of time outside. Keep in mind, this was already after a lifetime of major depressive and manic episodes, where his rash and often extreme decisions led to his own father threatening to put him in an asylum. Additionally, he also often expressed that he felt uncertain of his place or purpose in the world. ^[4] In fact, this part of him is so well known that it almost surpasses his contributions to the art world as: the myth of the “tortured artist,” of which Van Gogh exists as the poster boy. ^†  To have one’s mental state be as well known, if not eclipse the legacy of their work, proves that this was a significant aspect of Van Gogh’s life, and to be wracked with such aggressive physical and mental anguish is enough to make anyone miserable. Though, he did have one consistent bright spot in his life.

Vincent van Gogh kept in frequent contact with his younger brother and sister-in-law, Theo and Johanna van Gogh, both of whom he was incredibly close to and often expressed his appreciation for. They kept each other updated through letters, and the couple not only provided Vincent with unwavering moral support, but were also the ones who sustained his life as an artist. Theo van Gogh was even directly in contact with Vincent’s doctor, Dr. Peyron, as he was the one who arranged Vincent’s stay. ^[5] It comes as no surprise, then, that Vincent van Gogh was among the first, if not the first, to hear the good news in the form of a letter on January 31, 1890.

After months of a tumultuous pregnancy and an intense labor, Johanna van Gogh delivered a healthy newborn baby. ^[6] Theo penned the good news and sent it off to his brother with haste, who was greatly moved by the declaration that the baby boy was named after him and their other long-deceased brother, Vincent Willem van Gogh. ^[7] Upon receiving the news, van Gogh immediately started on a painting to commemorate the occasion.

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Almond Blossom is a still life painted in February 1890 to celebrate the birth of Vincent van Gogh’s only nephew, who also bore his name. Not only does van Gogh finish it in record time, taking only half a month to complete the canvas, but he encloses it and several canvases in a package that he sends to his family in April. ^[8] While he originally intended for the couple to hang the painting in their bedroom, they instead chose to hang it on the wall above their baby’s bassinet, since the painting was intended for him.

 It was a highly cherished piece, not only by the family, but also by Vincent himself; he expressed immense satisfaction during the creation and completion of the work, where he not only wrote that he was painting calmly from day to night, but that it was “the best and most patiently worked canvas [he] had ever done.” ^[9]

His love of almond blossoms was well known by others, too. His brother commented on it, once writing, “…the branch of the almond trees in blossom shows that you haven’t exhausted these subjects.” ^[10] (Van Gogh was even so inspired by the creation of this piece that he tried to paint several more blossoming almond flowers, although he fell ill immediately after the completion of Almond Blossom, so he missed the rest of the blooming window.)

Not only was his love of the subject and the love of his new familial stranger a strong influence of the artwork, but also the subject itself. Almond blossoms, according to most cultures, signify hope and new beginnings because of their overwhelming presence at the start of spring; it’s only fitting that van Gogh would chose it as the subject of the painting that celebrates the life of his newborn nephew. On the flipside, almond blossoms also represent the fragility and transient nature of life, that the beauty of it is fleeting, perhaps a sign of what was to come. ^[11]

Even the predominant usage of the color blue was a choice that influenced its beauty; while blue wasn’t van Gogh’s favorite color (it was yellow), he still often used it heavily due to the personal meaning it had to him, which were the universal feelings relating to the color; sadness, longing, despair. ^[12] Rather than the intense, rich dark cobalt blue he used for many of his pieces, which often made a piece feel daunting or uneasy, Almond Blossom stands out because it uses a light, soft blue, which can represent health, healing, and tranquility, three things that van Gogh wished to achieve. ^[13] But that shade of blue can also carry an additional meaning, maybe some of which van Gogh felt deep down above all: hope. Even in the throes of the worst of his illness, van Gogh always remained hopeful that he would recover, even when such an idea felt uncertain and cruel to maintain. To him, art was seen as a healing mechanism, and he used painting as a way to cope. ^[14] All of these things contributed to his usage of blue in Almond Blossom: what was once seen as a dreary color paired with a symbol of hope to turn it into something bittersweet. Or perhaps, that even with the overwhelming presence of such melancholic feelings, there still remained little bits of hope for the future.

Indeed, the canvas not only reflected the feelings of joy and pain, but largely captured who Vincent van Gogh was as a person: that he, underneath all the intense despairing emotions, was a man with an intense conviction to make people feel through art, and to feel because of art. He wanted to capture the emotions he felt and express them as a form of beauty, and through it, he managed to transform a simple still life into an enduring and sentimental sign of love. Van Gogh would be dead only five months after its completion, with his brother following a year later, although the evidence of his love remained. This painting was cherish by the family; not only did it stay hung up in the family home and survive several moves, but this remains to be the only painting of Vincent van Gogh’s that has never been sold. In fact, to this day, the painting strictly remains displayed on the walls of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which was founded nephew Vincent Willem van Gogh. ^[15]

When language first came about and humans invented ways to refer to objects, we also needed a way to refer to each other. Hence, we were given names, a personal identifier for an individual that oftentimes carries historical, cultural, or sentimental meaning. Beyond that, most names often time carry another distinguishing mark: they are divided and assigned by sex. Sure, there exist unisex names in some cultures, but even those started out assigned to one side. But why? Who determined what proper noun would be associated with which sex? Spoiler: there’s no clear cut answer, but there are a variety of factors that contribute to us assigning a gender to a name across many cultures. 

The first reason has to do with sounds. Specifically, the sounds and letters each culture or language will associate with a sex. The differentiating markers all depend on the language. In many romance languages, for example, feminine names tend to be longer and “softer” sounding than masculine names. This is because feminine names that are derived from masculine names are usually given a vowel sound at the end, like “-e,” “-a,” “-ie,” “-ine,” “-ina,” and so on. These suffixes change the syllabic stress, which ends up making the name sound “smoother” or “rounder”. Contrastly, masculine names tend to be short and end with a consonant, making it “abrupt” or “spiky” sounding. These names tend to place the stressed syllable at the front (names like “Rick, “Jamal,” or “Evan” spring to mind), while feminine names tend to have the stressed syllable in the middle or last (think “Josephina,” “Ramona,” or “Evelyn”). In other non-romance or syllabic languages, names might end or include certain sex-associated markers. In Japanese, names that end with “-o” or “-shi” tend to be male, while feminine names tend to end with “-e,” “-ka,” or “-ko” (to name a few). In Chinese, feminine names will include radicals that make reference to beauty, appearance, or flowers, or include the female radical, “女” in some way. That’s why we can say a name sounds feminine or masculine, even if we have no idea what it means. 

Meaning also ends up determining the gender of a name. A lot of names are derived from descriptors, praises, or traits we tend to associate with the sexes. Male names often include meanings like strength, war, protection, numerical birth order, authority, or even just “manly.” Feminine names tend to relate to positive attributes or characteristics, like kindness, fertility, flowers and nature, purity, places, or seasons. There exists some overlap with both sexes when it comes to meaning derived from appearance, historical figures, or deities, although feminine names are more likely to make reference to appearance than male. 

Meaning and phonemes also often influence the creation of unisex names, too. For instance, in English-speaking parts of the world, names like “Leslie,” “Evelyn,” and “Ashley” started off as boy’s names, and within the span of the 20th century, were either popularized as girl’s names, or accepted as unisex. This is because our ears have been trained to detect the masculine and feminine patterns and components of a name- the stressed syllables and length- which is why it’s easier to accept names that have these features as belonging to the opposite sex. While not every masculine name utilizes voiced phonemes, and not every feminine name utilizes unvoiced, the pattern is common enough that our brains have picked up on it. With a few rare exceptions, most of these switches were popularized in the 20th century. In fact, one individual compiled a table that showed the progression of this opposite name adoption from 1900 to 2016 using data compiled from the US Social Security Administration. In less than a century, names that were previously male skyrocketed in popularity for women, most commonly in the 40s, 50s, and 60s! Religion can sometimes play a part in the blurring of these gender lines, too, when it comes to meaning. A common practice in some Catholic countries or cultures is to have the name of a saint given as the middle name for a child, even if it does not match their sex. For example, a child might be named Maria José or José Maria, depending on their sex, in reference to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Joseph, his legal father, even though these names are typically assigned to one sex or the other. Many Hindu names for both male and female are derived from Indian gods and goddesses. 

Interestingly, while there are some male names that were originally female (“Douglas,” in fact, was a girl’s name in 16th and 17th century England), the switch often seems to happen male-to-female instead of female-to-male. This has to deal with the societal attitudes behind what makes an individual masculine or feminine, and the attitude towards the sex as a whole. This idea of one-way name-switching carries some traces of sexism; while a woman can be granted attributes of “strength,” it is deemed as “emasculating” or insulting to refer to a man as “beautiful,” “graceful,” or “compassionate,” even though these are widely regarded as positive traits on their own. This is rooted in the still-present demonization of femininity, that it is inherently “lesser” or unfavorable to display feminine traits, especially in males. Similarly, names can even change gender association across cultures; names like “Kim,” “Andrea,” and “Yuri” can be majority one sex or the other depending on what part of the world you’re in. 

Your location also determines what your name can be. Many countries have name laws that dictate what you can and cannot name your child. Countries like New Zealand and Lithuania, to name a few, require parents to choose the name of their child from a list; any other name must be approved by the government. These lists are often divided by sex, but unisex names are still permissible. Four countries- Portugal, Denmark, Iceland, and Germany- have outright banned the use of unisex names. In cases of countries with syllabic languages, like Japan, China, or Korea, these regulations are put in place so the child’s name can be read without issue. In the case of Iceland, this is done to meet certain rules of grammar, though the primary reason is to avoid future embarrassment for the child, as is with most other countries. It is the held belief that a child with a name that mismatches their sex will be prone to teasing or bullying. In some cultures, like with the Sikh, there exist genderless given names; if gender is wished to be indicated, it is usually through using the middle or last name. Though, in recent years, names have started favoring one sex or the other. 

Socialization affecting the meaning of a name also swings the other way: your name can affect your socialization. A study found that individuals that had names less strongly associated with one gender reportedly engaged in less gender-typical social behavior, and had a weaker expression of gender-associated personality traits. So men that boasted “masculine-masculine” names were more likely to engage in stereotypically masculine activities and behaviors, and the same on the feminine side. Beyond your sex, your name influences your gender socialization, identification, and contributes to your expression of gender and gender roles within the society you’re a part of. Your name can even go on to influence your personality, self-esteem, and even your face, but that’s a topic for another time. 

Names have so many linguistic influences that go into their creation. While these gender associations may vary by culture and tongue, there seem to be a shared list of components ranging from meaning to auditory pattern to spelling that determine the reason a name may become associated with a certain gender. While we’re aware of what names are associated with what sex in our respective cultures, names, like language, are an ever-evolving mode of communication that constantly grow, shift, and change; who knows, one day you may be walking past a girl named “John” or a boy named “Grace!” 

References 

Alexander, Gerianne M. et. al. “Living Up to a Name: Gender Role Behavior Varies With Forename Gender Typicality.” Front Psychol, Jan. 22, 2021, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7862123/.

Seguin, Charles, Chris Julien, Yongjun Zhang. “The stability of androgynous names: Dynamics of gendered naming practices in the United States 1880-2016.” Poetics 85 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2020.101501.

Sidhu, David M., Penny M. Pexman. “What’s in a Name? Sound Symbolism and Gender in First Names.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, May 27, 2015. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?d=10.1371/journal.pone.0126809

Kaufman, Jeff. “Name Gender Over Time.” Feb. 23, 2016. https://www.jefftk.com/p/name-gender-over-time.