Mt Fuji View 14

View from Meguro in Edo. 14th of the 24 Views of Mt. Fuji.

I've finished my sketches and have gone on to other prints of Hokusai. Now we're getting into linework that inspired Van Gogh. He copied several Ukiyo-e prints, one of geishas and Hiroshige's Sudden Rain.

Van Gogh's letter to his sister. "When we study Japanese art, we see a man who is no doubt wise, philosophical and intelligent. And how does he spends his time? Studying the distance between the earth and the moon? No. Studying the political theories of Bismarck? No. He studies a single blade of grass. But this blade of grass leads him to draw plants of all kinds, then the seasons, the overall aspects of the landscape, then animals, and finally, the human figure. This is how he spends his life, and life is too short to do the whole. Come now, isn't it almost a true religion which these simple Japanese teach us, who live in nature as though they themselves were flowers? And it seems to me that we cannot study Japanese art without becoming much gayer and happier, and we must return to nature despite our education and our work in a world of conventions."

Vincent never visited Japan but looked at the woodblock prints that were available. He visited Japan with his mind's eye.