Gihachiro Okuyama - フィンセント・ファン・ゴッホの『モンマルトル』 (Vincent van Gogh - “Montmartre”) (1977)

Gihachiro Okuyama’s woodblock「フィンセント・ファン・ゴッホの『モンマルトル』」  (Vincent van Gogh - “Montmartre”) is a newly recarved, small-format version of his 1959 homage to Vincent van Gogh’s canvas “Terrace and Observation Deck at the Moulin de Blute-Fin.” Van Gogh painted the subject in 1886-87, when the Butte Montmartre - just uphill from the brothers’ apartment on rue Lepic - still showed traces of its rural past: abandoned quarries, kitchen gardens, and the idle windmill Moulin de Blute-Fin, whose wooden observation tower drew visitors with panoramic views of Paris. In Okuyama’s 1977 print, a lone couple wanders the lamplit promenade atop the hill, passing bare trees, tall gas lamps, and the timber deck that once overlooked the city. 🌃

• Year & Edition: 1977; signed and titled in pencil “ヴァン・ゴッホ モンマルトル (van Gogh Montmartre)” and “Gihachiro Okuyama.”
• Medium: Woodblock.
• Dimensions: Sheet H:  20.00 cm × W: 14.25 cm. (Image: 13.25 cm x 10.25 cm). 
• Condition: A beautiful piece. Colours vibrant, image unblemished. Paper crisp & intact. 
  
• Notes: Van Gogh painted several Montmartre views during 1886-87 while living in Paris, capturing its hilltop cafés, windmills, and winding lanes. Okuyama first carved this composition in 1959, translating van Gogh’s layered impasto and bold vertical accents into Japanese carving. In 1977, he fully recarved the blocks, preserving the original’s bold Post-Impressionist energy while showcasing his own mastery of Japanese carving and colour registration. This print is part of Okuyama’s series of tributes to van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Cézanne, celebrating the blend of Western modernism and traditional Japanese printmaking. The result is a series of highly collectible works; pieces of a portfolio testament to Okuyama's mastery at capturing the fine details, fluid brushstrokes, and textures of these masters within the precise intricacy, registration, and colour block work of traditional Japanese woodblock printing.