Vincent Van Gogh museum held an exhibition dedicated to the artist’s Japanese influences. Van Gogh owned a vast collection of ukiyo-e prints (600 to be precise), which had already been put on display back in 1971. These delicately coloured works were a huge source of fascination and inspiration to Van Gogh in his work as a painter.
Van Gogh became so bewitched by their enchanting aesthetic that he positioned himself as an artist from the Japanese tradition even before the term ‘Japanism’ emerged in art criticism in 1872.
His collection of prints had a considerable impact on his career as an artist, as can be seen from his Sower with Setting Sun and Almond blossom, which display the conventions of Japanese works. Vincent van Gogh was very fond of Japanese prints, and he wasn’t alone. In the second half of the 19th century, there was huge admiration for all things Japanese. Vincent did not pay much attention to this Japonisme at first. Very few artists in the Netherlands studied Japanese art. In Paris, by contrast, it was all the rage. So it was there that Vincent discovered the impact Japanese art was having on Europe, when he decided to modernise his own art.
Beyond flora, fauna and landscapes, Van Gogh, ever the perfectionist, also took up the techniques seen in Japanese engravings, which were characterised by their flat tints of colour and diagonal lines. Van Gogh thus created a unique style which communicates his enchantment with Japan and his Utopian Japanese ideal.
Courtesy of Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Vincent adopted these Japanese visual inventions in his own work. He liked the unusual spatial effects, the expanses of strong colour, the everyday subjects and the attention to details from nature. And, of course, the 'exotic' and joyful atmosphere. Vincent was not only interested in the style of Japanese art, but also in the Japanese way of life. He was inspired by Buddhist monks, who lived and worked together. Vincent wanted to establish a comparable artists’ community in Arles. He invited a number of artists, but in the end, only Gauguin came.
