When Vincent van Gogh arrived in Paris in 1886, he encountered a city in love with all things Japanese. The craze for ukiyo-e woodblock prints had swept through the studios and galleries, and Van Gogh himself became an avid collector, amassing hundreds of prints. Among these was Flowering Plum Tree by Utagawa Hiroshige, a print so admired by Van Gogh that in 1887 he painted his own version, now known as Flowering plum tree, after Hiroshige.

This painting is not merely a copy, but a vivid homage, filtered through Van Gogh’s own hand and palette. The scene captures a plum tree in full bloom, its twisting dark branches set against a riot of red and pink blossoms. In Hiroshige’s original, the plum garden at Kameido is a place of quiet beauty; Van Gogh intensifies the colors, thickens the outlines, and fills the background with bold, swirling brushwork. He even includes Japanese characters in the margins, mimicking the calligraphy of the print, though the text is largely decorative rather than legible.

Where Hiroshige’s composition is serene and balanced, Van Gogh’s interpretation pulses with energy, a sign of his fascination with the expressive power of color and line. This approach can be contrasted with Monet’s more atmospheric Japonisme works, which evoke mood through haze and light rather than bold structure. Flowering plum tree, after Hiroshige is one of several paintings Van Gogh made after Japanese prints during his Paris years, a period of intense experimentation. The exact medium is not always recorded, but most of these works are oil on canvas.

After Van Gogh’s death in 1890, many of his Japanese-inspired works remained with his brother Theo and later passed through the hands of collectors as his reputation grew. Today, this painting is recognized as a key example of Japonisme in European art and a testament to Van Gogh’s restless curiosity and willingness to learn from distant cultures. It stands as a bridge between East and West, and between the artist’s Parisian discoveries and the bold vision he would soon unleash in Arles.