Our latest trip.. Van Gogh!

AmsterdamThis week we have visited ! Apon our visit we went to the Van Gogh Museum for some inspiration for up coming projects.

Inspired by Van Gogh’s discovery of Japanese printmaking we thought we would share our experience!

He fell in love with the ukiyo-e – 19th-century Japanese colour woodcuts – during his time in Paris (1886–88), and began to collect these prints on a large scale.

Van Gogh admired the colourful images and the unusual compositions, the expanses of bright colour and the attention to details from nature in these prints. Below shows an image of the palette and tools used for these beautiful pieces!

Van Gogh quickly came to view Japanese art as a benchmark for his work, as shown by his letters from Arles (you can find in the museum), where he had moved in early 1888 with the idea that the South of France was ‘the equivalent of Japan’.

He learned there how to ‘see with a more Japanese eye’ and made ‘paintings like Japanese prints’.

This painting above shows how Van Gogh increasingly worked in the spirit of his Eastern example, with the emphasis on a colourful and distinctive palette.

This highlights the painter’s all-embracing admiration for this art and how fundamentally his work changed in response to the Japanese prints.

Furthermore on our visit;

A favourite of ours is the Almond blosoom.

This piece represents much of what Vincent often thought about: rebirth. Trees blooming and flowering announces the beginning of spring and new life.

This was created as a gift to celebrate the birth his brothers son. As soon as Van Gogh found out about the birth, he immediately thought to visit his brother in Paris. Knowing that he was still trying to overcome his mental health issues.. Hoping his time in the asylum would enable him to start again, feeling well. He more than often wrote that he felt better after being in the hospital and seeing his nephew. So a beautiful and deeply heart felt piece, when you see the painting in the flesh it really does evoke these feelings that Van Gogh put his thoughts and energy into.