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{{Short description|Influence of Japanese art on the works of Vincent van Gogh}}
{{Infobox artwork
{{Infobox artwork
| image_file = Van Gogh - la courtisane.jpg
| image_file = Van Gogh - la courtisane.jpg
| image_upright = 1
| painting_alignment = right
| image_size = 259px
| title = The Courtesan (after Eisen)
| title = The Courtesan (after Eisen)
| alt = An Oiran courtesan dressed in a colourful kimono placed against a bright yellow background framed by a border of bamboo canes, water lilies, frogs, cranes and a boat
| alt = An Oiran courtesan dressed in a colourful kimono placed against a bright yellow background framed by a border of bamboo canes, water lilies, frogs, cranes and a boat
| type = [[Oil painting|Oil on canvas]]
| medium = [[Oil painting|Oil on canvas]]
| catalogue = {{Flatlist}}
*[[Jacob Baart de la Faille|F373]]
*[[Jan Hulsker|JH1298]]
{{Endflatlist}}
| artist = [[Vincent van Gogh]]
| artist = [[Vincent van Gogh]]
| year = {{Start date|1887}}
| year = {{Start date|1887}}
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}}
}}


'''''Japonaiserie ({{en|Japanesery}})''''' was the term the Dutch [[post-impressionist]] painter [[Vincent van Gogh]] used to express the [[Japonisme | influence of Japanese art]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/search/advanced?originaltext=original&term=Japonaiserie&person_terms=&person_code=&literature_terms=&literature_code=&workofart_terms=&workofart_code=&bibleref_terms=&bibleref_code=&f_number=&jh_number=&periodical=&from=1&id_range=&id_type=jlb_id&date_from=1872-09-29&date_until=1890-07-31&period=&correspondent_name=&correspondent_id=&place_name=&place_id=&order=date&search2.x=13&search2.y=8&search2=Search |title=Search result |work=Vincent van Gogh. The Letters |publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]] |location=Amsterdam}}</ref>
'''''Japonaiserie''''' ({{langx|en|Japanesery}}) was the term used by Dutch [[Post-Impressionist]] painter [[Vincent van Gogh]] to express the [[Japonisme|influence of Japanese art]] on his works.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/search/advanced?originaltext=original&term=Japonaiserie&person_terms=&person_code=&literature_terms=&literature_code=&workofart_terms=&workofart_code=&bibleref_terms=&bibleref_code=&f_number=&jh_number=&periodical=&from=1&id_range=&id_type=jlb_id&date_from=1872-09-29&date_until=1890-07-31&period=&correspondent_name=&correspondent_id=&place_name=&place_id=&order=date&search2.x=13&search2.y=8&search2=Search |title=Search result |work=Vincent van Gogh. The Letters |publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]] |location=Amsterdam}}</ref>


== Background ==
Before 1854 trade with Japan was [[Dutch Golden Age #Monopoly on trade with Asians | confined to a Dutch monopoloy]] and [[Dejima #Trade | Japanese goods imported into Europe]] were for the most part confined to porcelain and lacquer ware. The [[Convention of Kanagawa]] put an end to the 200 year old Japanese foreign policy of [[Sakoku | Seclusion]] and opened up trade between Japan and the West.
Before 1854, trade with Japan was [[Dutch Golden Age#Monopoly on trade with Japan|limited to a Dutch monopoly]],<ref>Gianfreda, Sandra. "Introduction." In ''Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh… Japanese Inspirations'', edited by Museum Folkwang, Essen, 14. Gottingen: Folkwang/Steidl, 2014.</ref> and [[Dejima#Trade|Japanese goods imported into Europe]] primarily comprised porcelain and lacquer ware.<ref>Chisaburo, Yamada. "Exchange of Influences in the Fine Arts between Japan and Europe." ''Japonisme in Art: An International Symposium'' (1980): 14.</ref> The [[Convention of Kanagawa]] ended the 200-year Japanese foreign policy of [[Sakoku|Seclusion]] and opened up trade between Japan and the West.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Commodore Perry and Japan (1853–1854) {{!}} Asia for Educators {{!}} Columbia University|url=http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1750_perry.htm|access-date=2021-07-10|website=afe.easia.columbia.edu}}</ref> From the 1860s, ''[[ukiyo-e]],'' [[Moku hanga|Japanese woodblock prints]], became a source of inspiration for many Western artists.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bickford|first=Lawrence|title=Ukiyo-E Print History |date=1993|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42597774|journal=Impressions|issue=17|jstor=42597774 |issn=1095-2136}}</ref>


== Influence of Japanese art on van Gogh ==
Artists such as [[Manet]], [[Degas]] and [[Monet]], followed by Van Gogh, began to collect the cheap [[ Woodblock printing in Japan | colour wood-block prints]] called [[ukiyo-e | ''ukiyo-e'' prints]]. For a while Vincent and his brother [[Theo van Gogh (art dealer)| Theo]] dealt in these prints and they eventually amassed hundreds of them (now housed in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=206701&lang=en |title=Japanese prints: Catalogue of the Van Gogh Museum’s collection |publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]] |location=Amsterdam}}</ref>
[[File:Vincent van Gogh Looking to Japan.webm|upright=1.35|thumb|Curator Leo Jansen of the [[Van Gogh Museum]] explains Japonaiserie]]
Van Gogh's interest in Japanese prints began when he discovered illustrations by Félix Régamey featured in ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'' and ''[[Le Monde illustré|Le Monde Illustré]].''<ref name=":0">Thomson, Belinda (2014). "Japonisme in the Works of Van Gogh, Gauguin, Bernard and Anquetin". In Museum Folkwang (ed.). Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh… Japanese Inspirations. Folkwang/Steidl.</ref> Régamey created woodblock prints, followed Japanese techniques, and often depicted scenes of Japanese life.<ref name=":0" /> Beginning in 1885, Van Gogh switched from collecting magazine illustrations, such as Régamey, to collecting ukiyo-e prints which could be bought in small Parisian shops.<ref name=":0" /> Van Gogh bought Japanese [[ukiyo-e]] woodcuts in the docklands of Antwerp, later incorporating elements of their style into the background of some of his paintings.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hammacher|first=Abraham Marie|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/50030883|title=Vincent Van Gogh : Genius and Disaster|date=1985|isbn=0-8109-8067-3|location=New York|pages=84|oclc=50030883}}</ref> Vincent possessed twelve prints from [[Hiroshige]]'s series ''[[One Hundred Famous Views of Edo]],'' and he also had bought ''Two Girls Bathing'' by [[Utagawa Kunisada II|Kunisada II]], 1868. These prints were influential to his artistic development.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hammacher|first=Renilde|title=Van Gogh, A Documentary Biography|publisher=Macmillan Publishing CO., INC.|year=1982|isbn=0-02-547710-2|location=New York|pages=135, 151}}</ref>

He shared his collection with his contemporaries and organized a Japanese print exhibition in Paris in 1887. He and his brother [[Theo van Gogh (art dealer)|Theo van Gogh]] dealt in these prints for some time, eventually amassing hundreds of them, which are now housed in the [[Van Gogh Museum]] in Amsterdam.<ref>{{cite web|title=Japanese prints: Catalogue of the Van Gogh Museum's collection|url=http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=206701&lang=en|publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]]|location=Amsterdam}}</ref>


In a letter to Theo dated about 5 June 1888 Vincent remarks
:About staying in the south, even if it’s more expensive — Look, we love Japanese painting, we’ve experienced its influence — all the Impressionists have that in common — [so why not go to Japan], in other words, to what is the equivalent of Japan, the south? So I believe that the future of the new art still lies in the south after all.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let620/letter.html |title=Letter 620 |work=Vincent van Gogh. The Letters |publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]] |location=Amsterdam}}</ref>
A month later he wrote,
A month later he wrote,
:All my work is based to some extent on Japanese art...<ref>{{cite web|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let640/letter.html|title=Letter 640|work=Vincent van Gogh. The Letters |publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]]|location=Amsterdam}}</ref>


{{quote|All my work is based to some extent on Japanese art...<ref>{{cite web|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let640/letter.html|title=Letter 640|work=Vincent van Gogh. The Letters |publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]]|location=Amsterdam}}</ref>}}
==Influence of Japanese art on Van Gogh==
Van Gogh's interest in Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' prints dates from his time in Arnhem when he was also interesting himself in [[Eugène Delacroix| Delacroix]]'s theory of colour and where he used them to decorate his studio.


Van Gogh made three copies of ''ukiyo-e'' prints, ''The Courtesan'' and the two studies after [[Hiroshige]].
:One of [[Jules de Goncourt | De Goncourt’s]] sayings was ‘Japonaiserie for ever’. Well, these docks [at Arnhem] are one huge Japonaiserie, fantastic, singular, strange ... I mean, the figures there are always in motion, one sees them in the most peculiar settings, everything fantastic, and interesting contrasts keep appearing of their own accord.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let545/letter.html |title=Letter 545 |work=Vincent van Gogh. The Letters |publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]] |location=Amsterdam}}</ref>


Van Gogh's dealing in ''ukiyo-e'' prints brought him into contact with [[Siegfried Bing]], who was prominent in the introduction of Japanese art to the West and later in the development of [[Art Nouveau]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Search result|url=http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/search/advanced?originaltext=original&translation=translation&annotations=notes&essays=essays&from=1&to=1&date_from=1872-09-29&date_until=1890-07-31&order=date&person_code=290|work=Vincent van Gogh. The Letters|publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]]|location=Amsterdam}}</ref> Van Gogh developed an idealised conception of the Japanese artist which led him to the [[Yellow House (Arles)|Yellow House at Arles]] and his attempt to form a utopian [[art colony]] there with [[Paul Gauguin]].
During his subsequent stay in Paris, where [[Japonism | ''Japonisme'']] had become a fashion influencing the work of the [[Impressionists]], he began to collect ''ukiyo-e'' prints and eventually to deal in them with his brother Theo. At that time he made three copies of ''ukiyo-e'' prints, ''The Courtesan'' and the two studies after [[Hiroshige]].


== Style ==
Van Gogh developed an idealised conception of the Japanese artist which led him to the [[Yellow House (Arles) | Yellow House]] at [[Arles]] and his attempt to form a utopian [[art colony]] there with [[Paul Gauguin]].
Van Gogh admired the techniques of Japanese artists.<ref>Gianfreda, Sandra. "Introduction." In ''Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh… Japanese Inspirations'', edited by Museum Folkwang, Essen, 14. Gottingen: Folkwang/Steidl, 2014.</ref>


Characteristic features of ''ukiyo-e'' prints include their ordinary subject matter, the distinctive cropping of their compositions, bold and assertive outlines, absent or unusual perspective, flat regions of uniform colour, uniform lighting, absence of ''[[chiaroscuro]]'', and their emphasis on decorative patterns. One or more of these features can be found in numbers of Vincent's paintings from his Antwerp period onwards.
His enthusiasm for Japanese art had however waned by July 1888 in favour of Impressionism


== ''Japonaiserie'' and Impressionism ==
:Fortunately, we know more about the French Japanese, the Impressionists. That’s definitely the essence and the main thing.
In a letter to Theo dated 5 June 1888, Vincent remarked,{{quote|About staying in the south, even if it’s more expensive—Look, we love Japanese painting, we’ve experienced its influence—all the Impressionists have that in common—[so why not go to Japan], in other words, to what is the equivalent of Japan, the south? So I believe that the future of the new art still lies in the south after all.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let620/letter.html |title=Letter 620 |work=Vincent van Gogh. The Letters |publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]] |location=Amsterdam}}</ref>}}In a letter of July 1888 he referred to the Impressionists as the "French Japanese".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/search/advanced?originaltext=original&term=Japonaiserie&person_terms=&person_code=&literature_terms=&literature_code=&workofart_terms=&workofart_code=&bibleref_terms=&bibleref_code=&f_number=&jh_number=&periodical=&from=1&id_range=&id_type=jlb_id&date_from=1872-09-29&date_until=1890-07-31&period=&correspondent_name=&correspondent_id=&place_name=&place_id=&order=date&search2.x=13&search2.y=8&search2=Search |title=Search result |work=Vincent van Gogh. The Letters |publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]] |location=Amsterdam}}</ref>


== ''The Courtesan (after Eisen)'' ==
:So Japanese art, properly speaking, already with its place in collections, already impossible to find in Japan itself, is becoming of secondary interest.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let642/letter.html |title=Letter 642 |work=Vincent van Gogh. The Letters |publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]] |location=Amsterdam}}</ref>
[[File:Van Gogh tracing for The Courtesan.jpeg|thumb|150px|left|Vincent's tracing of the courtesan figure|alt= an old looking squared up tracing of a Japanese woman]]


[[File:Title page Paris Illustre Le Japon vol 4 May 1886.jpg|thumb|right|Title page of ''Paris Illustré Le Japon'' vol. 4, May 1886, no. 45-46|alt= the front of an old French magazine showing a courtesan or oiran or 'geisha girl' in a colourful kimono her hair fantasically done up with cherry or almond blossom to the left]]
Van Gogh's dealing in ''ukiyo-e'' prints brought him into contact with [[Siegfried Bing]] who was prominent in the introduction of Japanese art to the West and later in the development of [[Art Nouveau]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/search/advanced?originaltext=original&translation=translation&annotations=notes&essays=essays&from=1&to=1&date_from=1872-09-29&date_until=1890-07-31&order=date&person_code=290|title=Search result |work=Vincent van Gogh. The Letters |publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]] |location=Amsterdam}}</ref>

Characteristic features of ''ukiyo-e'' woodprints include their ordinary subject matter, the distinctive cropping of their compositions, bold and assertive outlines, absent or unusual perspective, flat regions of uniform colour, uniform lighting, absence of ''[[chiaroscuro]]'', and their emphasis on decorative patterns. One or more of these features can be found in numbers of Vincent's paintings from his Antwerp period onwards.

==The Courtesan (after Eisen)==
[[File:Van Gogh tracing for The Courtesan .jpeg|thumb|150px|left|Vincent's tracing of the courtesan figure|alt= an old looking squared up tracing of a Japanese woman]]

[[File:Title_page_Paris_Illustre_Le_Japon_vol_4_May_1886.jpg|thumb|right|Title page of Paris Illustré "Le Japon' vol. 4, May 1886, no. 45-46|alt= the front of an old French magazine showing a courtesan or oiran or 'geisha girl' in a colourful kimono her hair fantasically done up with cherry or almond blossom to the left]]


The May 1886 edition of ''Paris Illustré'' was devoted to Japan with text by [[Tadamasa Hayashi]] who may have inspired van Gogh's utopian notion of the Japanese artist:
The May 1886 edition of ''Paris Illustré'' was devoted to Japan with text by [[Tadamasa Hayashi]] who may have inspired van Gogh's utopian notion of the Japanese artist:


:"Just think of that; isn’t it almost a new religion that these Japanese teach us, who are so simple and live in nature as if they themselves were flowers?"
{{quote|Just think of that; isn't it almost a new religion that these Japanese teach us, who are so simple and live in nature as if they themselves were flowers?


:"And we wouldn’t be able to study Japanese art, it seems to me, without becoming much happier and more cheerful, and it makes us return to nature, despite our education and our work in a world of convention." <ref>{{cite web|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let686/letter.html |title=Letter 686 note 21 |work=Vincent van Gogh. The Letters |publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]] |location=Amsterdam}}</ref>
And we wouldn't be able to study Japanese art, it seems to me, without becoming much happier and more cheerful, and it makes us return to nature, despite our education and our work in a world of convention.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let686/letter.html |title=Letter 686 note 21 |work=Vincent van Gogh. The Letters |publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]] |location=Amsterdam}}</ref>}}


The cover carried a reverse image of a colour woodblock by [[Keisai Eisen]] depicting a Japanese courtesan or ''[[Oiran]]''. Vincent traced this and enlarged it to produce his painting.
The cover carried a reverse image of a colour woodblock by [[Keisai Eisen]] depicting a Japanese courtesan or ''[[Oiran]]''. Vincent traced this and enlarged it to produce his painting.
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==Copies of Hiroshige prints==
== Copies of Hiroshige prints ==


{{multiple image
| align = left
| direction = horizontal
| image1 = De pruimenboomgaard te Kameido-Rijksmuseum RP-P-1956-743.jpeg
| width1 = 150
| alt1 =
| caption1 = ''[[Plum Park in Kameido]]'' (1857) by [[Hiroshige]]
| image2 = Vincent van Gogh - Bloeiende pruimenboomgaard- naar Hiroshige - Google Art Project.jpg
| width2 = 185
| alt2 =
| caption2 = ''Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige)'' (1887) by [[Vincent van Gogh]]
}}


{{multiple image
{{multiple image
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| image1=Hiroshige Van Gogh 1.JPG
| direction = horizontal
| caption1=''Flowering Plumtree (after [[Hiroshige]])'' (1887), [[Van Gogh Museum]]
| image1 = Hiroshige, Sudden shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake, 1857.jpg
| alt1=Portrait of a tree with blossoms and with far eastern alphabet letters both in the portrait and along the left and right
| width1 = 158

| alt1 =
| image2=Hiroshige Van Gogh 2.JPG
| caption2=''The Bridge in the Rain (after [[Hiroshige]])'' (1887), [[Van Gogh Museum]]
| caption1 = ''[[Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake]]'' (1857) by [[Hiroshige]]
| image2 = Vincent van Gogh - Brug in de regen- naar Hiroshige - Google Art Project.jpg
| alt2=Portrait of a tree with blossoms and with far eastern alphabet letters both in the portrait and along the left and right
| width2 = 177
| footer=Hiroshige originals side by side with Vincent's copies
| alt2 =
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Van Gogh made copies of two Hiroshige prints. He enhanced their colours and added borders filled with calligraphic characters he borrowed from other prints.
Van Gogh made copies of two Hiroshige prints. He altered their colours and added borders filled with calligraphic characters he borrowed from other prints.<ref>'Utagawa, Japonaiserie and Vincent Van Gogh' in: Forbes, Andrew; Henley, David (2014). ''100 Famous Views of Edo''. Chiang Mai: Cognoscenti Books. ASIN: B00HR3RHUY</ref>


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==Example ukiyo-e prints==
== See also ==
* [[List of works by Vincent van Gogh]]
*Eisen: The Feast of Seven Herbs, colour woodblock, [http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/fcgi-bin/db2www/quickSearch.mac/gallery?selLang=English&tmCond=keisai+eisen State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg]
*Eisen: ''(various)'' (1832), colour woodblock, [http://www.conncoll.edu/visual/Japanese-prints/index-3.html Connecticut College, Connecticut]
*Eisen: Edo... shibai-machi kaomise no zu, colour woodblock, [http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true&id=176473&coll_keywords=Keisai+Eisen&coll_accession=&coll_name=&coll_artist=&coll_place=&coll_medium=&coll_culture=&coll_classification=&coll_credit=&coll_provenance=&coll_location=&coll_has_images=1&coll_on_view=&coll_sort=0&coll_sort_order=0&coll_view=0&coll_package=0&coll_start=1 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
*Hiroshige: Sudden Shower over Atake (1857), colour woodblock, [http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/online/edo/detail.php?view=9005.58.13 Brooklyn Museum, New York]
*Hiroshige: Plum Estate, Kameido (1857), colour woodblock, [http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/online/edo/detail.php?view=9022.30.10 Brooklyn Museum, New York]
*Hiroshige: Maple Trees at Mama, Tekona Shrine (1857), colour woodblock, [http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/online/edo/detail.php?view=Autumn.94 Brooklyn Museum, New York]
*Hiroshige: Ushimachi, Takanawa (1857), colour woodblock, [http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/online/edo/detail.php?view=9013.81.14 Brooklyn Museum, New York]
*Hiroshige: Fireworks at Ryōgoku (1857),colour woodblock, [http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/online/edo/detail.php?view=9016.98.7 Brooklyn Museum, New York]
=== In UK ===
*Hiroshige: Yui, Satta Peak, colour woodblock, [http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/asia/u/utagawa_hiroshige,_yui_satta.aspx British Museum, London]
*Hiroshige: ''(various)'', colour woodblock, [http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/collection/advsearch/advresults/index.html?&StartAt=1&QueryName=DetailedQuery&QueryPage=%2Fcollection%2Fadvsearch%2Findex.html&col_CreCreatorLocal_tab=Hiroshige&LimitPerPage=20&Search=Search&ImagesOnly=true Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester]
*Hokusai: Abe No Nakamaro, colour woodblock, [http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/pharos/collection_pages/19th_pages/Hokusai/FRM_PIC_SE-Hokusai.html Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge]
*Hokusai (''attrib.''): The Shishi-Mai Dance, colour woodblock, [http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?_IXSESSION_=CdB2B4AGBWQ&_IXSR_=&_IXACTION_=display&_MREF_=15641&_IXSP_=1&_IXFPFX_=templates/full/&_IXSPFX_=templates/full/ Royal Academy of Arts, London]
*Hokusai: Dragon ascending Mount Fuji, colour woodblock, [http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/asia/k/katsushika_hokusai,_dragon_asc.aspx British Museum, London]
*Sharaku: The Actors Nakamura Wadaemon and Nakamura Konoz, colour woodblock, [http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/asia/t/t%C5%8Dsh%C5%ABsai_sharaku,_print.aspx British Museum, London]
*Utamaro: Girl at her Toilet with two female attendants and male admirer, colour woodblock, [http://www.bmagic.org.uk/objects/1926P184 Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham]
*Utamaro: Women sewing, colour woodblock, [http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/asia/k/kitagawa_utamaro,_women_sewing.aspx British Museum, London]
*Utamaro: Picture Book of Crawling Creatures (1788), colour woodblocks, [http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/utamaro/start.html Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge]

==Illustrative Van Gogh works==

*Houses seen from the Back (1885, Antwerp), oil on canvas, [http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=4731&lang=en Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam]
*The Courtesan (1887), oil on canvas, [http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=2122&lang=en Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam]
*The Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige), (1887), oil on canvas, [http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=3713&lang=en Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam]
*Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige), (1887), oil on canvas, [http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/popup.jsp?page=2189 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam]
*Sprig of Flowering Almond Blossom in a Glass (1888), oil on canvas, [http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=2515&lang=en Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam]
*The Bedroom (1888), oil on canvas, [http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=2796&lang=en Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam]
*Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (1888), oil on canvas, [http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=2659&lang=en Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam]
*The Rock of Montmajour with Trees (1888), pen and brush, [http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=5408&lang=en Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam]
*The Langlois Bridge (1888), oil on canvas, [http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=3761&lang=en Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam]
*The Harvest (1888), oil on canvas, [http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=2607&lang=en Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam]
*The Sower (1888), oil on canvas, [http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=4500&collection=451 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam]
*Almond Blossom (1890), oil on canvas, [http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=3128&lang=en Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam]

===In UK===

*Vincent's Chair with Pipe (1888), oil on canvas, [http://nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/vincent-van-gogh-van-goghs-chair National Gallery, London]
*Sunflowers (1888), oil on canvas, [http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/vincent-van-gogh-sunflowers National Gallery, London]

==External links==
*{{cite web|url=http://www.vggallery.com/visitors/018.htm|title=Vincent van Gogh: Lessons from Japan|last=Krikke|first=Jan|work=The Vincent van Gogh Gallery|accessdate=2010-08-25}}
*{{cite web|url=http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=25340&lang=en|title=Japonism|work=Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam|accessdate=2010-08-25}}

==See also==
* [[Copies by Vincent van Gogh]]
* [[Copies by Vincent van Gogh]]
*[[Japonism]]


==References==
== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}


== External links ==
{{Vincent van Gogh}}
{{Commons category|Japonaiserie, Vincent van Gogh serie}}
*{{cite web|url=http://www.vggallery.com/visitors/018.htm|title=Vincent van Gogh: Lessons from Japan|last=Krikke|first=Jan|work=The Vincent van Gogh Gallery|access-date=2010-08-25}}
*{{cite web|url=http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/prints/subject/5772|title=Japonism|work=Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam|access-date=14 January 2017}}


[[Category:Vincent van Gogh paintings]]
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[[Category:Paintings by Vincent van Gogh]]
[[Category:Paintings of Paris by Vincent van Gogh]]
[[Category:Series of paintings by Vincent van Gogh]]
[[Category:1887 paintings]]
[[Category:1887 paintings]]
[[Category:Japonisme]]
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Latest revision as of 06:18, 26 October 2024

The Courtesan (after Eisen)
An Oiran courtesan dressed in a colourful kimono placed against a bright yellow background framed by a border of bamboo canes, water lilies, frogs, cranes and a boat
ArtistVincent van Gogh
Year1887 (1887)
Catalogue
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions105.5 cm × 60.5 cm (41½ in × 23¾ in)
LocationVan Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Japonaiserie (English: Japanesery) was the term used by Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh to express the influence of Japanese art on his works.[1]

Background

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Before 1854, trade with Japan was limited to a Dutch monopoly,[2] and Japanese goods imported into Europe primarily comprised porcelain and lacquer ware.[3] The Convention of Kanagawa ended the 200-year Japanese foreign policy of Seclusion and opened up trade between Japan and the West.[4] From the 1860s, ukiyo-e, Japanese woodblock prints, became a source of inspiration for many Western artists.[5]

Influence of Japanese art on van Gogh

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Curator Leo Jansen of the Van Gogh Museum explains Japonaiserie

Van Gogh's interest in Japanese prints began when he discovered illustrations by Félix Régamey featured in The Illustrated London News and Le Monde Illustré.[6] Régamey created woodblock prints, followed Japanese techniques, and often depicted scenes of Japanese life.[6] Beginning in 1885, Van Gogh switched from collecting magazine illustrations, such as Régamey, to collecting ukiyo-e prints which could be bought in small Parisian shops.[6] Van Gogh bought Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts in the docklands of Antwerp, later incorporating elements of their style into the background of some of his paintings.[7] Vincent possessed twelve prints from Hiroshige's series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, and he also had bought Two Girls Bathing by Kunisada II, 1868. These prints were influential to his artistic development.[8]

He shared his collection with his contemporaries and organized a Japanese print exhibition in Paris in 1887. He and his brother Theo van Gogh dealt in these prints for some time, eventually amassing hundreds of them, which are now housed in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.[9]

A month later he wrote,

All my work is based to some extent on Japanese art...[10]

Van Gogh made three copies of ukiyo-e prints, The Courtesan and the two studies after Hiroshige.

Van Gogh's dealing in ukiyo-e prints brought him into contact with Siegfried Bing, who was prominent in the introduction of Japanese art to the West and later in the development of Art Nouveau.[11] Van Gogh developed an idealised conception of the Japanese artist which led him to the Yellow House at Arles and his attempt to form a utopian art colony there with Paul Gauguin.

Style

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Van Gogh admired the techniques of Japanese artists.[12]

Characteristic features of ukiyo-e prints include their ordinary subject matter, the distinctive cropping of their compositions, bold and assertive outlines, absent or unusual perspective, flat regions of uniform colour, uniform lighting, absence of chiaroscuro, and their emphasis on decorative patterns. One or more of these features can be found in numbers of Vincent's paintings from his Antwerp period onwards.

Japonaiserie and Impressionism

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In a letter to Theo dated 5 June 1888, Vincent remarked,

About staying in the south, even if it’s more expensive—Look, we love Japanese painting, we’ve experienced its influence—all the Impressionists have that in common—[so why not go to Japan], in other words, to what is the equivalent of Japan, the south? So I believe that the future of the new art still lies in the south after all.[13]

In a letter of July 1888 he referred to the Impressionists as the "French Japanese".[14]

The Courtesan (after Eisen)

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an old looking squared up tracing of a Japanese woman
Vincent's tracing of the courtesan figure
the front of an old French magazine showing a courtesan or oiran or 'geisha girl' in a colourful kimono her hair fantasically done up with cherry or almond blossom to the left
Title page of Paris Illustré Le Japon vol. 4, May 1886, no. 45-46

The May 1886 edition of Paris Illustré was devoted to Japan with text by Tadamasa Hayashi who may have inspired van Gogh's utopian notion of the Japanese artist:

Just think of that; isn't it almost a new religion that these Japanese teach us, who are so simple and live in nature as if they themselves were flowers? And we wouldn't be able to study Japanese art, it seems to me, without becoming much happier and more cheerful, and it makes us return to nature, despite our education and our work in a world of convention.[15]

The cover carried a reverse image of a colour woodblock by Keisai Eisen depicting a Japanese courtesan or Oiran. Vincent traced this and enlarged it to produce his painting.

Copies of Hiroshige prints

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Plum Park in Kameido (1857) by Hiroshige
Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige) (1887) by Vincent van Gogh
Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake (1857) by Hiroshige
The Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige) (1887) by Vincent van Gogh

Van Gogh made copies of two Hiroshige prints. He altered their colours and added borders filled with calligraphic characters he borrowed from other prints.[16]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Search result". Vincent van Gogh. The Letters. Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum.
  2. ^ Gianfreda, Sandra. "Introduction." In Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh… Japanese Inspirations, edited by Museum Folkwang, Essen, 14. Gottingen: Folkwang/Steidl, 2014.
  3. ^ Chisaburo, Yamada. "Exchange of Influences in the Fine Arts between Japan and Europe." Japonisme in Art: An International Symposium (1980): 14.
  4. ^ "Commodore Perry and Japan (1853–1854) | Asia for Educators | Columbia University". afe.easia.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2021-07-10.
  5. ^ Bickford, Lawrence (1993). "Ukiyo-E Print History". Impressions (17). ISSN 1095-2136. JSTOR 42597774.
  6. ^ a b c Thomson, Belinda (2014). "Japonisme in the Works of Van Gogh, Gauguin, Bernard and Anquetin". In Museum Folkwang (ed.). Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh… Japanese Inspirations. Folkwang/Steidl.
  7. ^ Hammacher, Abraham Marie (1985). Vincent Van Gogh : Genius and Disaster. New York. p. 84. ISBN 0-8109-8067-3. OCLC 50030883.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ^ Hammacher, Renilde (1982). Van Gogh, A Documentary Biography. New York: Macmillan Publishing CO., INC. pp. 135, 151. ISBN 0-02-547710-2.
  9. ^ "Japanese prints: Catalogue of the Van Gogh Museum's collection". Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum.
  10. ^ "Letter 640". Vincent van Gogh. The Letters. Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum.
  11. ^ "Search result". Vincent van Gogh. The Letters. Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum.
  12. ^ Gianfreda, Sandra. "Introduction." In Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh… Japanese Inspirations, edited by Museum Folkwang, Essen, 14. Gottingen: Folkwang/Steidl, 2014.
  13. ^ "Letter 620". Vincent van Gogh. The Letters. Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum.
  14. ^ "Search result". Vincent van Gogh. The Letters. Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum.
  15. ^ "Letter 686 note 21". Vincent van Gogh. The Letters. Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum.
  16. ^ 'Utagawa, Japonaiserie and Vincent Van Gogh' in: Forbes, Andrew; Henley, David (2014). 100 Famous Views of Edo. Chiang Mai: Cognoscenti Books. ASIN: B00HR3RHUY
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