by C de Burlet

Created on: May 19, 2009

Visitors to the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam know it not only has many of his paintings on show, but also has a separate section containing Japanese prints. Many visitors either skip this section, or walk through it without taking time to have a really good look at these prints. This is a great pity. For the reason why these prints are on show is, that all things Japanese greatly influenced Western Art at the end of the 19th Century. Examples of this influence can be seen in the style and subjects of many paintings by van Gogh.

While living in Paris, Vincent van Gogh started to collect the Japanese woodcut prints which can now be admired in the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. In letters to his brother Theo he mentions these prints made him happy, while he also admired their simplicity. One example which clearly shows the Japanese influence on Vincent, is his painting of white blossoms on gnarled branches against a clear blue sky (1890). Other paintings by van Gogh even include mock Japanese characters.

Blossoms are not the only well-known symbol in Japan and Japanese Art that influenced Vincent van Gogh. In Japan, irises have their own festivals and symbolic meaning. They can be found depicted on for example kimonos, screens and in woodcut prints - the very prints Vincent van Gogh loved so much. Japanese irises themselves, were introduced from Japan to the West from the mid 19th century onwards.

During the 1880s and 1890s, van Gogh painted many flowers among which are paintings of irises. There is a painting of the town of Arles (1888), where he lived for a while, which includes irises and yellow fields surrounding the town. While staying in Saint-Remy, the garden he painted contained various plants including irises, which continued to inspire him.

From letters between Vincent van Gogh and his brother Theo it becomes clear that Vincent especially liked the contrast between blue and purple irises against yellow backgrounds. The combination he already used in his painting of Arles. In a letter written in May 1890 to Theo, Vincent describes how "The other purple bouquet (increasing in colour to pure Carmine and Prussian blue)... which stands out against a bright lemon-yellow background and other yellows in the vase ..., is an effect of enormously diverse complementary colours which make each other stand out even better due to their contrast." This is of course a description by the painter himself of one of his best known paintings of irises.

So the inspiration for Vincent van Gogh's paintings of irises - there is not just one - is a combination of his love for Japanese woodcut prints, as well as for the bulbs and their flowers that were introduced from Japan, plus his love for and use of stark, contrasting colours and their mutual effect.

www.vangoghmuseum.nl

The letters of Vincent van Gogh, Penguin Books Ltd, new edition 2008, 560 pp.

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