Japanese Print Translations
He went to Arles because he believed it was the place he had seen in the prints.
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F372 Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige) 1887 -
F371 Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige) 1887 -
F373 Oiran (after Kesai Eisen) 1887
Painting
Three oil paintings — Bridge in the Rain, Flowering Plum Tree, Oiran. The first two copy directly from Hiroshige's woodblock prints; the third from Kesai Eisen. He did not hide the act of copying: he kept the calligraphic border like an Eastern signature, painting Chinese characters around the edge as decoration. But the medium had changed — ukiyo-e is water-printed on wood, thin and flat; oil paint is thick, heaped, bright. He was attempting something difficult: translating a lightness into a weight, while keeping its clarity.
Letter
1887 to 1888, Japan returns again and again in his letters. To his sister Wil: "If we study Japanese art, we see a man who is undoubtedly wise, philosophic and intelligent, who spends his time doing what? Studying the distance between the earth and the moon? No. Studying a single blade of grass." Another letter: "Do you envy the Japanese? Their work is as simple as breathing." From copying a bridge and a plum tree in Paris, the position grew, in Arles, into: "All my work is based to some extent on Japanese art."
Place
Two places, two years. Paris 1887 — he bought ukiyo-e at Bing's, copied them at home, hung them on Tanguy's shop wall. Arles 1888 — his first letter from Provence: "It is like Japan here." He never went; he built a Japan out of a flea-market stack of prints and then moved to the south of France to live inside it. The fiction held for two years, until the year everything broke.
He began collecting prints in Antwerp; by Paris they numbered in the hundreds. Over the Paris years he and Theo collected and displayed these Japanese prints in quantity.
He chose two Hiroshiges and copied them in oil, stroke by stroke. Not to hand to anyone — he wanted to move into his own hands that way of reorganizing the world through line and flat colour.
Later, in Arles, he imagined the whole South as his own "Japan." He believed the light of Provence was the very thing he had already seen in the prints.
Events
- The Translator · Letter 510
In Paris, bought a batch of ukiyo-e from Bing's gallery. Began pinning them to the wall with Bernard, studying one after another
- The Copyist · Letter 540
Completed Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige). Scaled the woodblock print up on grid paper, drew a pencil sketch, then painted in oil
- The Copyist · Letter 540
Painted Flowering Plum Tree and Oiran (after Eisen). Added Chinese characters around the border, keeping the eastern signature-style as decoration
- The Translator · Letter 620
Just after arriving in Arles, wrote: 'It is like Japan here.' He was living in southern France as if it were a geographical Japan
- The Ferocious Reader · Letter 640
Reading Loti's Madame Chrysanthème. Wrote to his sister Wil: 'If we study Japanese art, we see a man undoubtedly wise, philosophic and intelligent. What does he spend his time doing? Studying a single blade of grass.'
- The Translator · Letter 686
Wrote the most complete self-statement: 'All my work is based, to some extent, on Japanese art.' From copying specific prints to absorbing a whole visual grammar
From the Letters
Tout mon travail est un peu basé sur la japonaiserie. All my work is based to some extent on Japanese art.
Envie-tu les Japonais? Leur travail est aussi simple que de respirer. Do you envy the Japanese? Their work is as simple as breathing.
Si on étudie l'art japonais, on voit un homme incontestablement sage, philosophe et intelligent, qui passe son temps à quoi? À étudier la distance de la terre à la lune? Non. À étudier un seul brin d'herbe. If we study Japanese art, we see a man who is undoubtedly wise, philosophic and intelligent, who spends his time doing what? Studying the distance between the earth and the moon? No. Studying a single blade of grass.
Letter Sources
Van Gogh letter records referenced on this page, linked to the Van Gogh Letters Project. vangoghletters.org
Essays
Long-form reading connected to this node.