Japanese printmaking was one of Vincent’s main sources of inspiration, and he became an enthusiastic collector. Why did Vincent have such admiration for Japanese prints? Check out the answer.
Vincent bought his first Japanese prints in Antwerp in 1885, after admiring their unique, intriguing qualities. Later, in Paris, he even looked upon them as a shining artistic example.
Vincent believed that the prints were of equal quality to recognised highlights of classical Western art. In a letter to Theo he once wrote: ‘Japanese art is something like the primitives, like the Greeks, like our old Dutchmen, Rembrandt, Potter, Hals […].’
Western artists including Van Gogh were captivated by the alternative approach to depiction in Japanese printing: the use of large sections of colour, elements at the edges of the image unexpectedly cropped and naturally, the exotic motifs.
![Utagawa Hiroshige, Shinagawa: View from Goten Mountain onto the Station of Shinagawa, no. 2 from the series Collection of Illustrations of Famous Places near the Fifty-Three Stations [Along the Tōkaidō], 1855](https://iiif.micr.io/QSnKn/full/800,/0/default.webp)