A red line divides the picture plane. Van Gogh used the same red to sign this small painting of a sprig of flowering almond. Almond trees are the first to blossom in the spring. When Van Gogh arrived in Arles (FR), there was still snow on the ground. On 2 March, a little more than a week later, he wrote to his brother, 'There’s a hard frost here, and out in the country there’s still snow — I have a study of a whitened landscape with the town in the background. And then 2 little studies of a branch of an almond tree that’s already in flower despite everything.' After that, Van Gogh began work on a large series of paintings of flowering orchards: almond, peach, plum and pear trees. (https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0184V1962)