![Utagawa Hiroshige, Kameyama: Wind, Rain and Thunder, no. 47 from the series Collection of Illustrations of Famous Places near the Fifty-Three Stations [Along the Tōkaidō], 1855](https://iiif.micr.io/Ubjrm/full/2000,/0/default.webp)
Utagawa Hiroshige, Kameyama: Wind, Rain and Thunder, no. 47 from the series Collection of Illustrations of Famous Places near the Fifty-Three Stations [Along the Tōkaidō], 1855
The weather and the seasons
Hiroshige designed thousands of landscape prints, but each landscape was unique. He broke through the monotony of the landscape by depicting it in different seasons and types of weather, such as spring or autumn, and rain or snow.
Van Gogh and the Japanese landscape
Van Gogh admired the Japanese landscapes in his collection of prints. He was particularly fascinated by the dozens of landscape prints by Hiroshige.
He had a heavily romanticised image of Japanese artists, and fantasised about how they worked in isolation, at one with nature.
Utagawa Hiroshige, The Residence with Plum Trees at Kameido, from the series One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo, 1857
Vincent van Gogh, Flowering Plum Orchard (after Hiroshige), 1887
In Van Gogh’s letters, we read how he saw the French countryside with a ‘Japanese eye’. He selected Japanese motifs for his paintings and drawings, such as blossom, rain and gnarled trees.