Utagawa Hiroshige, 五十三次名所図会 四十七 亀山 風雨雷鳴, 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, 名所江戸百景 亀戸 梅屋舗, 1857
Vincent van Gogh, Bloeiende pruimenboomgaard (naar 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.