Japanese influence on Van Gogh - Essay Example

Date Japanese influence on Van Gogh Introduction Van Gogh was one of the most passionate collectors, and studiers of Japanese art. He and his brother, Theo Van Gogh, systematically collected hundreds of Japanese wood block prints, ukiyo-e, a Japanese tradition of woodblock printing that reflected the social events, everyday life, and traditions of modern period Japan. Staying in Paris at the time, Van Gogh felt the dullness of Parisian life, and saw the urge of moving to somewhere else. Arles was the place he finally decided, as he wanted to go to somewhere close to Japan. Personally, Van Gogh has never been to Japan, and all of his understandings of Japan come from his studies of woodblock prints. He understood the main ideologies of Japanese art as to be the simplicities of colors and the essence of nature. Today, Van Gogh is most well known for his later works during his stay at the Saint Paul-De-Mausole hospital. The works demonstrated his latest development on formal techniques of the vortexes and thick strokes reflecting his mental illness. This essay examines the works from an earlier period: his stay at Arles when he took advantage of the pastoral landscapes and abundant sunlight of Arles and fulfilled his love for Japan. He was able to learn the principle of Japanese beauty through the lens of landscape genre of ukiyo-e and apply it to the landscapes of Arles. Among all the Japanese prints he collected, Van Gogh admired the landscape painter Utagawa Hiroshige. Utagawa Hiroshige is a Japanese wood-block painter known as the last great master of the ukiyo-e tradition, for his revolutionary depictions in natural scenes as subject matter. After learning in the Hiroshige school, the most announced school in ukiyo-e which emphasized on traditions of painting Japanese prostitutes, warriors, and peasants. Just as the Impressionists abandoned depictions of Bourgeois life and moved to interests in nature, Japanese woodblock painters shifted towards landscapes, taking influence part from the Chinese ink painting tradition. Influenced by the great master Katsushika Hokusai, who is best known for his work “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”, Hiroshige started to focus on landscapes as his subject matter. He then took government sponsored trips around Japan, and painted his famous series of works: “Ten Famous Places in the Eastern Capital”, “The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō” and “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo”. Among the woodblock prints by Hiroshige that Van Gogh collected, many were his landscapes. In fact, Van Gogh loved them so much that he made studies after two of Hiroshige’s works, “The Plum Garden in Kameido” and “Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake" from “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo” when he was still in Paris. “The Plum Garden in Kameido” has a strong influence on Van Gogh both in subject matters as one of the reasons he was so found of painting flowering orchards was they represented Japanese subject matters, and in formal techniques as Van Gogh chose to flatten the perspective of his works and created a two-dimensional space. Japanese aesthetics is based on an abstract set of aesthetic idea which from the traditional religion Shinto. Shinto, which literally stands for “the way of god”, is a religious practice that focuses on seeking inspirations and truth of life from interpreting the nature. The term “god” is different to the western definition in that it stands for the spirit of the nature, and shinto is a cosmological believe in the laws of nature. The basic terminologies of Shinto aesthetics include(translated in English): asymmetry, irregularity, simplicity, basic, weathered, without pretense, natural, subtly profound grace, not obvious, unbounded by convention, free and tranquility. He saw the simplicity of the pastoral scenes which were not influenced by Western civilization and industrialization a path to grasp the essence of such simplicity in Japanese Art. “Come now, isn’t it almost a true religion which these simple Japanese teach us, who live in nature as though they themselves were flowers. And you cannot study Japanese art, it seems to me, without becoming much gayer and happier, and we must return to nature in spite of our education and our work in a world of convention. “ Van Gogh states to Theo in the same letter. Such simplicity was explored by Van Gogh first in his flowering orchards paintings, but more in depth later on in his works of his stay in Arles as he adopts a brighter palette from both influences of the colors used in Japanese woodblock prints (Wilkin 62). The abundant natural sunlight helped Van Gogh with his practices as he could see the objects with clarity in a bright manner. As he stayed in Arles, Van Gogh started to paint wheat fields and farm houses of the area. He has changed from a dull use of color from his earlier career to using more yellow, ultramarine, and mauve in his work. The Painting “Harvest in Provence” he came up with in the year 1888 June contains two of most same colors colors which are yellow and ultramarine, and the techniques that are applied in the subject tend to matter in regards to wheats and houses to their humble geometrical methods along with the compressed surface shows the progress Van Gogh had accomplished in interpreting the pastoral scenes of Arles in Japanese aesthetic manner. In 1888, Van Gogh left Paris for Arles in South of France to seek new inspiration. Particularly, one of his intentions was to find a place similar to Japan. In his letter to Theo he wrote “About staying in the south, even if it’s more expensive — Look, we love Japanese painting, we’ve experienced its influence — all the Impressionists have that in common — [so why not go to Japan], in other words, to what is the equivalent of Japan, the south? So I believe that the future of the new art still lies in the south after all.” Van Gogh succeeds in his search of the imagery Japan, most from the abundant scenery of the beautiful landscape of pastoral Arles. More importantly, the new lifestyle he was able to adopt in Arles fulfilled his need of hope and rebirth, which linked to his imagery of Japan with the nature and sunlight. When Van Gogh first arrived Arles in February, weather soon turned warmer after snowing for several days, and all the trees started to blossom. Source: (Vincent van Gogh 1888) Art work of van Gogh Van Gogh was very happy and took a passionate interest in painting the orchard blossoms, as he though he found the imaginary Japan as he found the blooming flowers just as those in Hiroshige’s print. Even though the wind was so big that he sometimes had to stick his canvas to the ground, he would still constantly go out because he couldnt resist the attraction from painting those orchards. He even needed to urgently request for paints and canvas from his brother Theo as he was painting the Orchards so much. “I have another new orchard for you — but for Christ’s sake get the paint to me without delay. The season of orchards in blossom is so short, and you know these subjects are among the ones that cheer everyone up.” Van Gogh took a symbolic meaning of the blossoming trees as symbols for rebirth, after his moving from his dull life in Paris. The nature and sunlight also fulfilled his need to work in Japanese subject matters. The simple landscapes and abundant sunlight helped Van Gogh to capture what he saw as essential to Japanese art. He was able to accomplish the simplicity he wanted in his paintings which corresponded to the style of Japanese woodblock prints. “I envy the Japanese for the enormous clarity that pervades their work. It is never dull and never seems to have been made in haste. Their work is as simple as breathing and they draw a figure with a few well-chosen lines with the same ease, as effortless as buttoning up ones waistcoat…..” Vincent wrote in the letter to his brother Theo Van Gogh on 24 September, 1888. In the same way, the media platform tends to affect individuals, The Japanese Pavilion during the 1876 World Exhibition in Paris France, provoked the cosmopolitan generation to develop innovations in regards to arts and fashion. In regards to the controversies witnessed in Western and Eastern cultures, and traditions. The women from European nations started emulating the Japanese cultures by wearing the kimonos and carrying of fans. The artwork that constituted, Furniture, ceramic pottery of the Orient origin, and Japanese nation developed into a familiar environment for many traditional homes. Because Japan did not embrace the Western cultures until during the 1850s, the cultures of Japanese people remained a mystery to the majority of the Europeans citizens and consequently, authentic Japanese commodities and services were rare in the European market before 1860 (Swerdlow and Lynn 4). Immediately ate the international world trade fair, the entire globe sparked interest, however, the majority of the Parisian markets came up with the Japanese sub stores within their enterprises. In the turn of the events, the stores then started providing Japanese goods for a wider range of customers. A considerable number of fine arts were brought into general society space going from, costly and unique and other that were shoddy duplicates. By and by, by 1860s, Japanese craftsmanship were cherished by everybody purchased a hefty portion of the prints. There were likewise craftsmen who succumbed to the charm of the Japanese tasteful and elegant arts. Two of the artworks namely, Japonaiserie: Plum Tree in Bloom and Japonaiserie: Bridge in the Rain, featured the work of Japanese master artist, Hiroshige. The prints that were associated with Van Goghs did not contain the soothing colors and textures of the Hiroshige originals; However Van’s prints did indicate that the artist intentions were to try and Europeanize Japanese art by including its concept into van Goghs distinctive style (Wilkin 62). The segment of the show entitled "Pieces of turf" conveys van Goghs letter to his sister to striking life, acquainting us with what may be called his "all-over" canvases: close perspectives of weeds, undergrowth, tufts of grass clearly considered from ground level, a solitary cluster of iris springing from the earth. There are no limits with which we may arrange ourselves in these surprising pictures - no skyline, no boundaries of cutoff points (Swerdlow and Lynn 4). The theme fills the canvas, equitably weighted over the whole painting. Swelling ears of wheat, their firm stalks, and crooked leaf-sharp edges turn into an embroidered artwork like span, a close monochrome of dyed green, with flashes of ochre and a couple accentuating notes of white and yellow from meddlesome wild blossoms. Conclusion In conclusion, the encounter of Van Goghs both Impressionist thoughts, and Japanese prints amid his stay in Paris is obvious in works, for example, Fritillaries in a Copper Vase (1887, Musée dOrsay), in which the convoluted states of the descending pushing yellow petals and their spiky foliage are set off by a dark blue foundation flicked with bits of yellow and spots of lighter blue, with underpinnings of red. The picture appears to battle into being, weighted by a devastating heap of color, maybe the coincidental consequence of van Goghs determination to make the sheer aggregation of paint the transporter of feeling. Its just as he declined to quit taking a shot at a photo, adding more color to it, until he felt that some sort of visual identicalness for feeling had been accomplished. Van Goghs comprehension of the traditions of Japanese prints is apparent, as seems to be, maybe, his attention to Japanese materials, however these works of art talk the same amount of to his own pleasure in tight center and close examination - or to his yearning for the quieting impact of looking steadily at a piece of turf that he portrays in his letter to Wilhelmina - as they do to his enthusiasm for the disentanglements of Japanese models. Works Cited Swerdlow, Joel L., and Lynn Johnson. "Vincent Van Gogh: Lullaby in Color." National Geographic 192.4 (1997): 100. Academic Search Premier. Web. Wilkin, Karen. "Van Gogh in Philadelphia." New Criterion 30.9 (2012): 62-66. Academic Search Premier. Web. Read More