The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, LondonVan Gogh and Japan: the prints that shaped the artist
Alastair Sooke
11 June 2018
A new exhibition reveals how the artist borrowed techniques from Japanese prints and incorporated them into his portraits, writes Alastair Sooke.
In February 1888, Vincent van Gogh left Paris, where he had been living for a couple of years, and headed for the city of Arles in Provence, in southern France. Exhausted by his time in the metropolis, and eager to recover some self-composure, he was seeking a simpler life that, he hoped, would revitalise both himself and his art. He was also keen to establish a community of artists, and felt excited by the possibilities.
