Author Description

The young Vincent Van Gogh began to collect Japanese prints in Antwerp in 1886. Later in Paris Van Gogh and his brother Theo expanded the collection and began to deal in prints. From his Antwerp days up to his stay in the Institution at S. Remy, Japanese prints decorated the walls of Vincent's rooms and Japanese art colored his outlook. The collection that the brothers amassed is illustrated here in its entirety. Van Gogh's interest in Japanese prints was by no means exceptional at the time. He was conscious of the fact that the Impressionists owed much to the Japanese. He even called his European colleagues the "French Japanese". To Van Gogh, Japan represented a world of peace, simplicity, and harmony with nature.