how Japanese art influenced Vincent Van Gogh.

Japanese art had a great influence on Van Gogh, especially Japanese woodcuts. This happened when Van Gogh moved to Paris in 1886. This was the time he was introduced to impressionism as well as Japonism. He liked the bold designs, vivid colours and the flat areas of colour it had.
Van Gogh's brother(Theo) ran an art gallery at the time in Montmartre. This helped Vincent get in contact with ukiyo-e, an Japanese artist. Van Gogh spent a lot of time in the gallery studying the works and what made them have the Japonism style. He later became a collector of ukiyo-e's work.
Van Gogh copied two designs of Japanese landscape printmaker, Hiroshige. He copied the prints 'The Bridge in the Rain' and 'Flowering Plum Tree'. In the 'The Bridge in the Rain', Van Gogh filled the border with calligraphic figures that he got from other Japanese related prints.
Van Gogh created a version of 'The Courtesan' in the same fashion as the others. This piece was based on Kesai Eisen's work, another Japanese artist. The frame of this piece was as well filled with Japanese prints. Even though Van Gogh copied the prints, the changed them to make them fit his style as well. The copies Van Gogh made had brighter colours and a greater contrast could be seen from the colours.


'The Bridge in the Rain'


'Flowering Plum Tree'

source:  Japonisme, Japonaiserie, Japanese Influence on Van Gogh . 2013.Japonisme, Japonaiserie, Japanese Influence on Van Gogh . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.vangoghgallery.com/influences/japonisme.html. [Accessed 16 May 2013].