Van Gogh Museum Debuts Complete 'One Hundred Aspects of the Moon' Series by Yoshitoshi
The Facts
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has placed on view the complete series "One Hundred Aspects of the Moon" by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892), one of the 19th century's most important Japanese printmakers. The 100 prints, created between 1885 and 1892, were added to the museum's collection through a donation from the estate of Elise Wessels (1943–2023), an art collector and founding director of the museum Nihon no hanga. The series, remarkably complete and in excellent condition, is now on display for the first time at the museum. The prints depict characters and events from Japanese and Chinese history, mythology and folklore, with the moon as a unifying symbol of contemplation and nostalgia.
The Signal
The exhibition underscores the Van Gogh Museum's deepening engagement with Japanese ukiyo-e, a genre that profoundly influenced Vincent van Gogh's artistic development. Van Gogh himself collected hundreds of Japanese prints, including five by Yoshitoshi, and studied them closely. For collectors and curators, the display of this complete, pristine series from a single estate offers a rare opportunity to assess Yoshitoshi's late-career synthesis of traditional woodblock techniques with Western perspective and realism. The acquisition via the Dutch inheritance tax scheme also highlights a strategic model for museums to secure major collections without direct purchase, a signal for institutions seeking to expand holdings of non-Western art through tax-efficient donations.
- Artists: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Vincent van Gogh
- People: Elise Wessels
- Museums: Van Gogh Museum, Nihon no hanga
- Locations: Amsterdam
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