Description
Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige) is the painting Vincent van Gogh made in Paris in October and November 1887 after a Japanese woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige: a dark plum tree with white blossoms crosses the canvas against a red sky, an orchard of flowering trees and a low fence lie behind it on green ground, and orange borders with Japanese characters run down both sides. The original, oil on canvas, measures 46.8 x 55.6 cm and is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. We paint it by hand in oil on canvas, in 16 sizes from 40 x 50 to 135 x 160 cm or to your own measurements, and send you a photograph of the finished painting for approval before dispatch.
| Title: | Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige) |
| Other titles: | Flowering Plum Orchard (after Hiroshige) · Bloeiende pruimenboomgaard: naar Hiroshige |
| Painter: | Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) |
| Year painted: | October–November 1887, Paris |
| Original size: | 46.8 cm x 55.6 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Post-Impressionism, Japonisme |
| Located at: | Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (acc. no. s0115V1962) |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, 16 sizes or made to measure |
Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige) – Vincent van Gogh
What does Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige) show?
The tree fills the front of the scene. A thick, dark limb enters from the lower left and runs diagonally up to the right edge, and from it a trunk and several thin stems rise to the top of the canvas. The wood is a deep red-brown with touches of blue, and small white blossoms with red centres sit along the branches, most of them in the upper half against the sky.
Behind it, rows of smaller trees covered in pale blossom stand on bright green ground, their grey trunks branching low, and a low green fence runs across the middle distance. The sky is a strong red at the top that turns orange and yellow towards the horizon. A yellow panel with characters sits in the upper right corner and a small red one lower down on the left, and on both sides runs a wide orange border filled with large green and black characters, separated from the scene by a thin red line.
Why did Van Gogh copy a Japanese print?
The Van Gogh Museum writes that he made three paintings after Japanese prints from his own collection, which gave him a chance to explore the printmakers’ style and use of colour. In the museum’s account this was the first of the three copies, based on Utagawa Hiroshige’s Plum Garden in Kameido. He wrote, the museum adds, that Japanese art made him happy and cheerful.
The English Wikipedia article on his Japonaiserie fills in the background. From 1885 he collected ukiyo-e woodcuts; he owned twelve prints from Hiroshige’s series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, and in 1887 he organised an exhibition of Japanese prints in Paris. With his brother Theo he dealt in these prints and gathered hundreds of them, which are now in the Van Gogh Museum. Wikipedia gives the Hiroshige print as Plum Park in Kameido, from 1857, and quotes Van Gogh: ‘All my work is based to some extent on Japanese art.’
What did Van Gogh change in the Japanese print?
According to the Van Gogh Museum, he reproduced Hiroshige’s composition accurately but made the colours much more intense. The museum points to the trunk: where Hiroshige used black and grey, Van Gogh painted it in red and blue tones.
The second change is the frame of characters. The museum writes that he added the two orange borders with Japanese characters for a decorative and exotic effect, and Wikipedia adds that he borrowed the characters from other prints.
Where is the original today?
The original is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which lists it as Flowering Plum Orchard (after Hiroshige), Paris, October–November 1887, oil on canvas, 46.8 x 55.6 cm, under the object number s0115V1962. It belongs to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation.
The museum records that the canvas remained in his brother Theo’s apartment in Paris. After Theo’s death on 25 January 1891 it passed to his widow Jo van Gogh-Bonger and their son Vincent Willem van Gogh. From 22 October 1931 it was in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. In 1952 Vincent Willem gave it to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation. It has been in the Van Gogh Museum since that museum opened on 2 June 1973.
Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige) or another Van Gogh – which should you choose?
Of the three paintings Van Gogh made after Japanese prints, two more are in our range. Bridge in the Rain is his second copy after Hiroshige, also from 1887, of a sheet that Wikipedia names Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake; like this canvas, it has borders of characters. Courtesan is his painting after a woodcut by Keisai Eisen, made in Paris in 1887.
If it is the blossom you are after, two later paintings are close in spirit. Pink Peach Tree in Blossom shows a pink peach tree in blossom, painted in Arles in 1888, and Almond Blossom, painted at Saint-Rémy in 1890, sets flowering branches against a blue sky. Choose the plum tree for strong red, green and orange with a Japanese frame of characters; choose Almond Blossom for a calmer, cooler wall.
How is our hand-painted Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige) made?
The painter first draws the borders, the diagonal limb and the rising stems and checks the proportions against the original. Then come the red and orange sky, the green ground and the orchard, after them the dark wood of the tree, and last the white blossoms and the characters in the borders. Our oil painting reproduction is painted by hand on canvas, with real impasto: the paint goes on thickly, so the brushstrokes stand up from the canvas as they do in the original and catch the light.
On this painting the relief shows most in the white blossoms, which sit on the branches as small raised dabs, in the strokes of the red sky and along the dark limb. A print is completely flat; on our painting every brushstroke stands out in real paint.
Every painting is a hand-painted copy made for your order, so no two are quite the same.
Which size for which wall?
Short answer: 40 x 50 or 55 x 66 cm for a narrow wall in a hallway, a study or beside a window, 64 x 80 or 80 x 100 cm above a chest of drawers or a bed, and 100 x 120 or 120 x 140 cm above a sofa or on a large wall.
There are 16 sizes: 40 x 50, 55 x 66, 60 x 70, 64 x 80, 70 x 85, 75 x 90, 80 x 100, 85 x 105, 90 x 110, 93 x 115, 100 x 120, 105 x 125, 110 x 130, 120 x 140, 127 x 150 and 135 x 160 cm (width x height). The original is about 47 cm wide and 56 cm high, a small canvas that lies between our 40 x 50 and 55 x 66 cm sizes. The upright format is a little broader than most of our sizes, and 105 x 125 or 110 x 130 cm keep its proportions most closely. A painting for the living room should cover about two thirds of the width of the furniture below it.
Hang it with the centre of the canvas about 150 cm above the floor. Above a sofa, a bed or a sideboard, leave 20 to 30 cm between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the canvas.
What if I need a custom size or a frame?
If none of the 16 sizes fits your wall, we paint it to measure in any width and height you need. If you want exactly the original’s proportions, ask for a custom size such as 47 x 56 cm, the size of the original itself. Send us the width and height you want and we will quote you a price and a delivery time. Every painting we make is mounted on a wooden stretcher, ready to hang.
Our 3D app shows each of our frame profiles on this painting, so you can compare gold, silver, black, white and natural wood. The app is for choosing the frame only. To see the painting on your own wall, use our separate room placement service. The painted orange borders already act as a frame, so a narrow black or dark wood frame suits them, while a gold one picks up the yellow panel and the orange.
How does delivery work, and what is the guarantee?
Every painting is made to order in our studio, so allow 15 to 45 days depending on the size you choose. We ship it on its stretcher, carefully packed (and framed, if you chose a frame), across the EU with no customs duty. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished painting to approve, and we correct anything that is not right. Our returns policy applies to every order.
You will find more of Van Gogh’s famous works among all our Vincent van Gogh paintings, and more about the painter in our article on Vincent van Gogh. If it is a present and you are not sure of the size, a wall art voucher lets the recipient choose.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige) today?
In the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The museum lists it as Flowering Plum Orchard (after Hiroshige), Paris, October–November 1887, oil on canvas, 46.8 x 55.6 cm, object number s0115V1962, in the collection of the Vincent van Gogh Foundation. Van Gogh left it with his brother Theo in Paris, and it stayed in the family until Theo’s son Vincent Willem gave it to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation in 1952.
When and where did Van Gogh paint the Flowering Plum Tree?
In Paris, in October and November 1887, as the Van Gogh Museum dates it. At the time he was collecting Japanese woodcuts and dealing in them with his brother Theo, and in 1887 he organised an exhibition of Japanese prints in Paris. In the museum’s account this plum tree was the first of his three paintings after Japanese prints.
Which Hiroshige print is Van Gogh’s plum tree based on?
On a woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige from 1857, which the Van Gogh Museum calls Plum Garden in Kameido and Wikipedia calls Plum Park in Kameido. Van Gogh owned twelve prints from Hiroshige’s series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, and the museum writes that his three copies were made after prints from his own collection.
Why are there Japanese characters around the plum tree?
Van Gogh painted them as a border. The Van Gogh Museum says he added the two orange borders with Japanese characters for a decorative and exotic effect, and Wikipedia adds that he borrowed the characters from other prints. On the canvas they frame the scene on both sides, separated from it by a thin red line.
Did Van Gogh copy other Japanese prints besides the plum tree?
Yes, two more. Wikipedia lists three copies of ukiyo-e prints: this one, a second study after Hiroshige of a bridge in a sudden shower, and The Courtesan after a woodcut by Keisai Eisen. Both Hiroshige copies have altered colours and added borders of characters, and both are in our range, as is the Courtesan.
How big is the original Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige)?
55.6 cm high and 46.8 cm wide, according to the Van Gogh Museum: a small upright canvas. Our 40 x 50 cm size is a little smaller and 55 x 66 cm a little larger. There are 16 sizes from 40 x 50 to 135 x 160 cm, and custom sizes in any proportions.
Which size of the Flowering Plum Tree suits a living room?
Above a sofa, choose 100 x 120 or 120 x 140 cm, so that the canvas painting holds its own on a large wall and the blossoms and characters read from across the room. On a narrower wall, beside a bookcase or above a sideboard, 64 x 80 or 80 x 100 cm works well. For a small room, 55 x 66 cm keeps the colour strong.
Does your Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige) have the raised brushstrokes of the original?
Yes. We paint it in impasto, building up each brushstroke in thick oil, so the surface is raised like Van Gogh’s original. You see this best in the white blossoms, which stand as small dabs of paint, in the strokes of the red sky and along the dark limb, where the relief catches the light from the side.
- Subject: a dark plum tree with white blossoms against a red sky, an orchard and a fence behind, framed by orange borders with Japanese characters.
- Original: October–November 1887, Paris, oil on canvas, 46.8 x 55.6 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
- Ours: a Van Gogh reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas, in 16 sizes from 40 x 50 to 135 x 160 cm or made to measure.
- Worth knowing: our 3D app shows every frame profile on this painting, so you can choose the frame before you order.
