Netherlands / Japan: Japonaiserie painting, The Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige), Vincent Van Gogh, 1887

Japonaiserie was the term the Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh used to express the influence of Japanese art. Before 1854 trade with Japan was confined to a Dutch monopoly and Japanese goods imported into Europe were for the most part confined to porcelain and lacquerware. The Convention of Kanagawa put an end to the 200 year old Japanese foreign policy of Seclusion and opened up trade between Japan and the West.

Artists such as Manet, Degas and Monet, followed by Van Gogh, began to collect the cheap colour wood-block prints called ukiyo-e prints. For a while Vincent and his brother Theo dealt in these prints and they eventually amassed hundreds of them. Subsequently Van Gogh would write (1888): 'All my work is based to some extent on Japanese art...'

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's 'The Bridge in the Rain' is based directly on Hiroshige's 'Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake (大はしあたけの夕立). Image 58 of '100 Famous Views of Edo' (1856-1859).

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

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Pictures From History

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100 FAMOUS VIEWS OF EDO