Van Gogh and the Influence of Japanese Art

Van Gogh oil painting (1887)

After U.S. naval commander Matthew Perry sailed into Tokyo harbor and coerced the Japanese to open the country to trade, the Western world was introduced to the art of woodblock printing.  In 1867, the Exposition Universelle in Paris ignited a craze for Japanese art.  

The Japanese prints, which featured scenes of ordinary life, influenced many of the leading Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, including Monet, Degas, Gaugin and Van Gogh.

Vincent Van Gogh and his brother, Theo, purchased hundreds of the ukiyo-e woodblock prints, several of which Vincent traced and reproduced as paintings. The specific artistic conventions, that characterized Japanese artwork, and which Van Gogh admired and embraced in his own drawings and paintings include:

● Van Gogh abandoned the artistic convention of dramatically modelling forms through the use of chiaroscuro lighting, which exaggerates the contrast between highlight and shadow.  Instead, he illuminates his subject matter more uniformly, as is evidenced in his painting of irises (below).

● To complement his manner of lighting, Van Gogh utilized a limited number of uniform colors. In his use of lighting and color, the flattened forms in his compositions are nonetheless very appealing.  By reducing his palette to a few basic hues, he emulated woodblock printing. In this method of printing, one carved woodblock is used for one or at most a few colors.  

● In rendering his subject matter, Van Gogh’s style is very linear, incorporating bold, dark outlines. These contours infuse his portrayals with energy and feeling. Rather than shading objects, he uses dynamic linework to suggest the depth of shapes in the same manner used in Japanese woodblock printing.   

The desaturated photo (above) demonstrates how Van Gogh used dark contours and bold linework to define the principal design elements. He was never hesitated to use black for his outlines.  

● Similar to the themes of the ukiyo-e woodblock prints, which depicted the ordinary lives of the Japanese working class, Van Gogh focused on the commonplace topics: still life, landscapes and depictions of ordinary people. Much of his subject matter is primarily decorative, rather than representing conventional historical or religious topics. In his selection of topics, Van Gogh found joy in the simpler aspects of life.

Rather than portraying historical scenes or religious themes, Van Gogh depicted the simpler aspects of everyday life, as shown in his Red Vineyards painting.

● To portray depth in a scene, ignores the typical rules of Western perspective. Instead, Van Gogh often distorts the rendering of his subjects. Notice in the picture below how the vase is represented in much the same way as Cezanne depicts many of the forms in his paintings.

Below are my versions of two Van Gogh paintings:

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About Jim Hingst: Sign business authority on vehicle wraps, vinyl graphics, screen printing, marketing, sales, gold leaf, woodcarving and painting. 

After fourteen years as Business Development Manager at RTape, Jim Hingst retired. He was involved in many facets of the company’s business, including marketing, sales, product development and technical service.

Hingst began his career 42 years ago in the graphic arts field creating and producing advertising and promotional materials for a large test equipment manufacturer.  Working for offset printers, large format screen printers, vinyl film manufacturers, and application tape companies, his experience included estimating, production planning, purchasing and production art, as well as sales and marketing. In his capacity as a salesman, Hingst was recognized with numerous sales achievement awards.

Drawing on his experience in production and as graphics installation subcontractor, Hingst provided the industry with practical advice, publishing more than 190 articles for  publications, such as  Signs Canada, SignCraft,  Signs of the Times, Screen Printing, Sign and Digital Graphics and  Sign Builder Illustrated. He also posted more than 500 stories on his blog (hingstssignpost.blogspot.com). In 2007 Hingst’s book, Vinyl Sign Techniques, was published.  Vinyl Sign Techniques is available at sign supply distributors and at Amazon. 

Slides of Jim's Artwork

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