‘The Influence of Japanese Art Upon Van Gogh’

‘The Influence of Japanese Art Upon Van Gogh’

Willem Vincent van Gogh was a world-renowned artist due to his excellent work, which in the late 19^th century had a significant influence on countless other artists. Van Gogh came to art late in his life, but his passion for visual art can be traced back to his days as a boy. In his early career, he used to work in the Netherlands for a company that dealt with arts. He later moved to the company’s branch in London, and his infatuation for visual arts started to decline. Van Gogh then relocated to Antwerp, where he studied for several months and also bought his first Japanese woodcuts art, which fascinated him. When Van Gogh was 32 in 1886, he moved to Paris to stay with his brother Theo. Japonisme was already in Paris before he arrived, and while he was there, he was exposed to this great artistic styles. When designing new visual arts, his discovery of the simple, elegant lines in Japanese woodblock prints influenced most of his work. Understanding the influence of Japanese art in Van Gogh’s development becomes essential in analyzing his work and those of countless other artists that followed.

During the mid-19^th century, interest in Japanese art by the Europeans was high and saw the return of Japan to the International Community. Japanese arts before then had been almost mystery to the European society except for a few Dutch and neighboring Chinese traders who exchanged goods. The 1854 treaty between the American government under Commander Mathew Perry sailed into Japanese waters for negotiations on trade and diplomacy. The Japanese had been on isolation under the shogunate government for 216 years (Abou-Jaoude 57). Commodore Perry used their advantage of possessing nuclear weapons to force negotiations, which led to the force trade relations with East Asia.

When the country opened its ports up for commercial interests, Japanese arts, mainly woodblock prints, became known in Europe. In the second half of the century, Japanese artifacts were available in major cities such as Paris and London. Impressionist and post-impressionist painters such as Van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, Claude Monet, and Edgar Degas were impressed and attracted by these arts (Wanczura 2018). They were excited by the elegant lines, bold, pure color, and assertive lines that were composed of the Japanese prints.

In 1867, the attendees of the Paris World Fair were exposed to arts such as Kimonos, the tea ceremony, and paper screens. The Parisians quickly favored these arts, and the craft started spreading further (Walther & Metzger 284).  Van Gogh, a post-impressionist artist, was influenced by the Japanese artistic style earlier when he bought his first art while living in Antwerp. He pinned the art on the wall of his room, seeking inspiration and trying to apprehend the appeal from these arts. He later described them to his brother through a letter of how good they were and compared them to the Greeks, their fellow old Dutchmen, Potter, Hals, and so many others. Shortly after living for several months in Antwerp, he moved to Paris, where the craze for the Japanese arts was and stayed with his brother. In Paris, he amassed a collection of these Japanese prints, and he identified how the artists were capable of creating a spatial effect (Stewart 2019).

Van Gogh started to adopt Japanese arts principles, and he began to view the ones in his collection with more curiosity. The Japanese artists often left space on the middle foreground of their compositions, and the objects were enlarged. The horizons were regularly excluded, and they were also not afraid of cropping out elements at the edge of the picture. Van Gogh learned that if they had to modernize their arts, they were to free themselves from the rigid composition rules associated with European artists (Stewart 2019). Van Gogh started imitating them in his works. According to Walther, in 1887, van Gogh’s admired these forms, which led him to design two arts similar to the one of the great Japanese landscape printmaker Hiroshige. One is the Bridge in the Rain and the Plum Tree in Bloom, where he decorated them with what he viewed as Japanese characters and framed them (Wanczura 2018).

Another art created by him was the reproduction of a print by Keisai Eisen. In this drawing, van Gogh enlarges the original image of the courtesan, places her in a contrasting golden background bordered with a water garden like landscape. On the surrounding, there were frogs and cranes too, and the paint was done with intense and bright colors. Vincent viewed the spatial effect, the use of everyday objects in their arts, the harmony with nature portrayed in their work alongside the expanses of bright colors created by the Japanese artist as never boring (Wanczura 2018).

After two years in Paris, van Gogh decided to move south and headed to the city of Arles in search of self-composure and live a simple life. He arrived during the spring and with a bright landscape filled with snow and bright colors. He found new energy in this place and influenced by the harmony with nature the Japanese portrayed in their arts, and he was keen also to establish an artist community. Van Gogh hoped to find some new peace and the color effects of Oriental prints. One of his artists, who was also fascinated with the Japanese arts, Paul Gauguin, joined him in Arles, and they painted together. In one of his letters to Theo while in Arles, van Gogh wrote that even though the countryside does not look like the ones in Hokusai prints, looking at the landscapes can give you an exact idea of the simplicity of nature here (Abou-Jaoude 61).  For van Gogh, Japan was an excellent example of nature and that with an extended stay in the countryside, his feel of color will change and bring out his personality.

Van Gogh’s drawings, while in Arles, further provide evidence that the Japanese prints outside his collection inspired him. Here he created large drawings that mostly contained the surrounding nature. The use of nature and the vibrant colors to him was more like a Japanese dream of unrestricted nature. An example of his first scene while in Arles is of Café Terrace at Night. This painting portrays how he used a nocturnal background, contrasting colors and tones to achieve a luminous surface. The elements of art in this painting are excellent since the lines of composition, are drawn to the center and along the pavement. He later described the picture to her sister, stating how he was amused to paint the night right ( Art Story 2012). This further shows the influence the Japanese prints had on van Gogh and also explained the way he used to regard this alluring art form.

In Arles, van Gogh continuously painted even after his disagreement with Gaugin that led to his friend return to Paris. His large drawings often constituted of landscapes, portraits of ordinary people, and the use of black contours, which was an element of Japanese prints. In this primitive southern region, he states that he always felt like he was in Japan. When he started to face health challenges and mental illness, he completed many other works such as the scenes of the hospital, the garden, and the surrounding landscapes. Before his death, van Gogh is believed to have shaved his head to look like a Japanese monk.

In conclusion, Vincent van Gogh’s work of art shows the direct influence of Japanese prints on his legacy. The Japanese who were more isolated and appreciated nature in most of their work had a massive impact on van Gogh’s art development. When the Japanese prints were portrayed in different cities in Europe, a different artist was fascinated with their use of elegant lines, bold, pure color, and assertive lines that were composed of the prints. On the woodblock prints, their composition was not as rigid as the European one. When in Paris, van Gogh adopted the Japanese principles and started creating extensive paints which were often left space on the middle foreground, excluded the horizons, and cropped out elements at the edge of the picture. He later moved to Arles in southern France in search of vibrant colors, and he mostly associated with the surroundings and nature in most of his paintings, just like the Japanese.