Courtesan (after Eisen) by Vincent van Gogh

An interpretation of Japanese wood block prints - new to the Paris art world. Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) The Courtesan (after Eisen), Vincent Van Gogh I envy the Japanese for that enormous clarity which all things have to them, Van Gogh wrote in 1888. Their work is as easy as breathing and they can make a figure with several well-chosen lines as if this is as simple as buttoning your jacket. The well-chosen line employed in this painting of a courtesan testified to Van Gogh’s study of Japanese prints. He based this work on a print by the Japanese artist Kesai Eisen, which had appeared on the cover of a themed edition of the magazine Paris Illustre in 1886. The artist used a grid to help him copy and enlarge the figure of the Japanese lady. Van Gogh designed a wide border for the picture with water lilies and bamboo in and around a pool. The cranes and frogs may well allude to the woman’s profession for in nineteenth-century Paris ‘grue’ (crane) and ‘Grenouille’ (frog) were in France common slang terms for prostitutes. Amsterdam (2002). 110 Masterpieces in the Van Gogh Museum Nederlands: De courtisane (naar Eisen), Vincent van Gogh (1887) Date 1887 Place of creation Paris Post-Impressionism