Flowering plum tree, after Hiroshige

Flowering Plum Tree, after Hiroshige, painted in 1887 and now at the Van Gogh Museum, is the second of Van Gogh's direct translations of Japanese woodblock prints by Hiroshige, made as part of his intensive engagement with Japonisme during the Paris period. Where the Bridge in the Rain after Hiroshige emphasized structure and atmospheric drama, this plum tree composition captures the decorative beauty of a flowering tree seen through a grid of bare branches. Van Gogh added a painted border inscribed with Japanese-style characters, framing the image explicitly as a cultural act of translation. The exercise deepened his understanding of Japanese compositional principles that would continue to influence his work in Arles and Saint-Rémy.

The cropped, close-up view of the flowering tree against sky — branches creating a grid-like structure — demonstrates the direct structural influence of Japanese print design on Van Gogh's compositional thinking. The blossoms are rendered as individual dabs and clusters of pink against the deep background. His translation adds color and texture where the woodblock print had flat color areas. The painted border with pseudo-Japanese characters makes the work a self-conscious meditation on cultural translation and aesthetic borrowing.