Flowering Plum Orchard

Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Paris, October-November 1887

Original: oil on canvas, 46.8 x 55.6 cm wxh

Van Gogh had great admiration for Japanese art. It made him happy and cheerful, he wrote. He made three paintings after Japanese prints from his own collection. For example, he practiced the use of color and the style of the Japanese printmakers.

For his first copy, he chose Utagawa Hiroshiges The Plum Tree Tea House in Kameido. He literally copied the composition, but he emphasized the colors much more strongly. He exchanged the black and gray of the tree trunk for shades of red and blue. He also added two orange trims with Japanese characters, for a decorative and exotic effect.

Interesting, read more about how Vincent was inspired by the Japanese prints here on the website of the Van Gogh Museum.

“And I don't think you can study Japanese art without becoming much happier and happier and it makes us return to nature, despite our upbringing and our work in a world full of conventions,” Vincent wrote to his brother Theo on 23 or 24 Sep 1888

This masterpiece by Vincent van Gogh can be seen in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Read more about the life and work of Vincent van Gogh on his painter page.

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

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