Gihacihro Okuyama - フィンセント・ファン・ゴッホの『タラスコン街道』(Vincent van Gogh - “On the Road to Tarascon”) (1977)

Gihachiro Okuyama’s woodblock 「フィンセント・ファン・ゴッホの『タラスコン街道』」 (Vincent van Gogh - "On the Road to Tarascon") is a renewed carving of his 1956 homage to Vincent van Gogh’s 1888 “Painter on the Road to Tarascon.” In this later, small-format version, Okuyama revisited the original composition capturing van Gogh’s self-portrait figure - a figure in a blue jacket and straw hat carrying a painter’s box - striding along a dirt road lined with tall poplars and golden wheat fields under a broad sky. 🌾🚶

• Year & Edition: 1977; signed and titled in pencil “ヴァン・ゴッホ タラスコン街道 (van Gogh On the Road to Tarascon)” and “Gihachiro Okuyama.”
• Medium: Woodblock.
• Dimensions: Sheet H:  20.00 cm × W: 14.00 cm. (Image: 11.25 cm x 10.25 cm). 
• Condition: A beautiful piece. Colours vibrant, image unblemished. Paper crisp & intact. 
• Notes: Van Gogh’s “Painter on the Road to Tarascon” from 1888 - believed to be his first self-portrait in Arles - was lost during a Second World War air raid. Okuyama first translated it into woodblock in 1956 and then fully recarved the design in 1977, 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.