A Vincent van Gogh masterpiece could have been inspired by a classic Japanese artwork, an art historian has claimed.
A Vincent van Gogh masterpiece could have been inspired by a classic Japanese artwork, an art historian has claimed.
Martin Bailey, author of the recent published Starry Night: Van Gogh at the Asylum, believes one of the Dutch painter’s most famous works, The Starry Night, was inspired by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai ‘s The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
Van Gogh collected Japanese prints, and particularly admired the Hokusai print, which is one of the most recognised and reproduced pieces of art in the world. Bailey argues that Van Gogh was inspired, perhaps unconsciously, by his memories of The Great Wave. “He obviously remembered it in great detail,» he said. «He had a very strong visual memory.”
Speaking to the Guardian, Bailey drew specific attention to similarities between the thrust of the wave and the swirling of the sky. In the Hokusai woodblock print, the wave towers over the volcanic peak of Mount Fuji, while in The Starry Night “the swirling mass in the sky hurtles towards the more gentle slopes of Les Alpille,» Bailey said.
