Plum blossoms and blades of grass

Van Gogh. Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass. 1888

    “If we study Japanese art, then we see a man, undoubtedly wise and a philosopher and intelligent, who spends his time — on what? — studying the distance from the earth to the moon? — no; studying Bismarck’s politics? — no, he studies a single blade of grass.

    But this blade of grass leads him to draw all the plants — then the seasons, the broad features of landscapes, finally animals, and then the human figure. He spends his life like that, and life is too short to do everything.

    Just think of that; isn’t it almost a new religion that these Japanese teach us, who are so simple and live in nature as if they themselves were flowers? And we wouldn’t be able to study Japanese art, it seems to me, without becoming much happier and more cheerful, and it makes us return to nature, despite our education and our work in a world of convention.”

    (Vincent van Gogh, letter to his brother Theo, 23/09/1888).

Hokusai. Plum Blossom and the Moon.

Van Gogh. Blossoming Pear Tree. 1888

Hiroshige. Catalpa Trees at Azuma Grove.

Van Gogh. Canal with Women Washing. 1888.

Hiroshige. Night View of Saruwakacho.

Van Gogh. Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night. 1888

Comparison of a woodblock print by Hiroshige (left) with its copy painted by Van Gogh.

links: 

The Van Gogh Gallery

The Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Vincent van Gogh: The Letters (all 900 of van Gogh's letters are here, in the original Dutch and French, with extensively annotated English translations)

Hokusai: The Complete Works

Hokusai prints on YouTube

Hiroshige: 100 Famous Views of Edo

and... the definitive new biography, Van Gogh: The Life, has recently been published in Spanish.

                               Not quite dark yet

                               and the stars shining

                               above the withered fields.

                               - haiku by Bosun (1716-1783)   

  

  

Magic Bob