Did Van Gogh own Hiroshige's paintings?

Van Gogh owned approximately 50 of Hiroshige’s landscapes. We know that he must have been one of Van Gogh’s favourite printmakers because the Dutch artist saw the Southern French landscape through Hiroshige’s eyes. Van Gogh also copied two of his prints in oils: Bridge in the Rain and Flowering Plum Orchard.

How did Utagawa Hiroshige influence Van Gogh?

Tellingly, he painted Segatori, in a portrait from 1887, with a Japanese print of a geisha and her assistant in the background. Utagawa Hiroshige influenced Van Gogh: this is Hiroshige’s Plum Garden at Kamata, 1857 (Credit: Nationaal Museum voor Wereldculturen, Leiden)

How many copies of ukiyo-e prints did Van Gogh make?

Van Gogh made three copies of ukiyo-e prints, The Courtesan and the two studies after Hiroshige . Van Gogh's dealing in ukiyo-e prints brought him into contact with Siegfried Bing, who was prominent in the introduction of Japanese art to the West and later in the development of Art Nouveau.

Was Van Gogh obsessed with Japan?

Of course, Van Gogh was not the only person obsessed with Japan during the 19th Century. When, in the 1850s, after more than two centuries of isolation, Japan opened to international trade, a plethora of Japanese goods began to be imported into France, and a bona-fide craze for all things Japanese was born.