The Bridge in the rain is a Japanese factory painted by Vincent van Gogh after the famous one Sudden shower on Shin-Ohashi and Atake Bridge by Utagawa Hiroshige. Van Gogh retained the diagonal of the bridge, the busy passers-by and the rain curtain, but translated the print on canvas, reinforced the contours and added a colorful border of Japanese characters.
Reliable benchmarks: title, date, dimensions and collection
Van Gogh painted this canvas in Paris between October and November 1887. It bears the references F372/JH1297 and inventory number s0114V1962. Its vertical format measures 73.3 × 53.8 cm. The painting is now kept at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
It belongs to the small group of three Japaneseeries of 1887 with Plum tree in bloom F371, after Hiroshige, and The Courtesan F373, based on a figure by Keisai Eisen released by Paris Illustrated. The word "after" is essential: Van Gogh paints the work, but recognizes an earlier model which he transforms.
Hiroshige's model: a downpour on Edo in 1857
The source print is Sudden shower on Shin-Ohashi and Atake Bridge, directed by Utagawa Hiroshige in 1857 for the series One hundred famous views of Edo. A print kept at the Metropolitan Museum of Art measures 36.5 × 24.3 cm. This is a woodcut printed in ink and color on paper, not a single design.
The Shin-Ohashi Bridge crosses the composition diagonally. The walkers lean over and accelerate under their hats, capes or umbrellas; a boatman advances on the river below; Atake's bank dissolves in the distance. Rain hatching covers the entire scene without removing its readability.
Hiroshige constructs the event with few resources: a large diagonal, dark silhouettes, repeated lines and printed gradients. The downpour is not added after the landscape; it regulates its perception. Van Gogh understands this lesson and transposes it into the matter of oil.
What Van Gogh preserves, what he transforms
| Element | Hiroshige, 1857 | Van Gogh, 1887 |
|---|---|---|
| Technique | Polychrome print on paper. | Oil on canvas, visible touch. |
| Composition | Diagonal bridge, distant bank, raft on the river. | Structure largely preserved and enlarged. |
| Rain | Thin printed lines, regular and oblique. | Long dark blue touches applied with a fine brush. |
| Color | Subtle gradients of sky, shore and water. | Intensified colors; reinforced contours and contrasts. |
| Frame | Cartridges embedded in the print. | Wide green and yellow border added around the scene. |
Van Gogh respects the model enough to keep it identifiable, but the change in technique changes everything. Printed wood produces clean flat areas and regular gradients; the oil reveals the gesture, the repeats and the differences in thickness. The yellow-ochre bridge gains weight, the water becomes denser and the silhouettes stand out with their contours.
This copy is an active learning exercise. Van Gogh does not seek to prove that he can perfectly imitate the Japanese impression. He experiences what a Hiroshige composition becomes when it passes through his palette and his hand.
Seven details to observe in The Bridge in the Rain
1. The yellow parapet
Its light color transforms the bridge into the main axis. It separates the blue-green water from the darker shore and immediately guides the eye from the lower left to the upper right.
2. Walkers almost reduced to signs
Figures do not have detailed faces. A few dark masses, hats and umbrellas are enough. This economy makes their movement more readable and brings their treatment closer to that of prints.
3. The boatman on the river
The small raft, visible on the water beyond the deck, occupies an area that is easy to overlook. It adds a second trajectory to the diagonal of the bridge and gives a scale to the surface of the river.
4. The Atake Bank
The distance is simplified into bands of green, blue and brown. Van Gogh does not seek to identify every building or tree; this reduction maintains depth without distracting from the downpour.
5. Rain interruptions
The lines are neither perfectly equal nor mechanically continuous. Small variations in length and density allow the landscape to breathe. Regularity creates the weather; irregularity keeps the surface alive.
6. The transition from blue to green
The water, sky and shore share a cold range. The yellow bridge and orange areas of the frame are the main hotspots. These hot counterpoints reinforce the presence of the bridge in the middle of the cold range.
7. The painted frame
It is not added by a framer: it belongs to the canvas. This false margin makes the act of quotation visible. Van Gogh presents an image after Hiroshige while claiming his own pictorial translation.
How to paint rain without painting every drop?
The Van Gogh Museum specifies that the artist reproduces the downpour with long vertical dark blue touches applied with a fine brush. To the eye, their slight inclination is enough to suggest the wind. They cross sky, shore, bridge and water: no area escapes the same meteorological phenomenon.
Repetition creates continuity
A single line would just be a brand. Dozens of parallel lines become a curtain. Their density varies enough to avoid monotony, but their common direction unifies the image. Spectator perceives rain before examining passersby.
The figures give the measure of the downpour
The characters are small, but their postures convey urgency. They run or bend over; their hats and umbrellas oppose curves to the right network of rain. The raft on the river extends the movement in another direction and prevents the bridge from becoming a simple decorative strip.
The bridge is a diagonal, not just a subject
The ramp goes up from left to right and cuts the vertical format. It organizes three depths: water in the foreground, human circulation in the middle and the distant shore. It is this geometry that allows the downpour to remain readable despite the multiplication of lines.
Why does Van Gogh add a Japanese character border?
The border does not exist in this form in Hiroshige's print. Van Gogh invented it with green and yellow stripes and characters inspired by two other prints, by other artists. The museum thus emphasizes that these signs are borrowed elsewhere: they do not transcribe the original title of the bridge.
Their function is mainly visual. They further verticalize the canvas, isolate the stage like a framed image and display the Japanese origin of the model in the eyes of the Parisian public. It would be misleading to read them as a perfectly translated continuous text. Van Gogh uses them as forms, rhythms and marks of otherness.
The same assembly logic appears in The Courtesan. To understand all of these borrowings, see also Van Gogh and Japan.
From Parisian Japonism to rainy landscapes
The Bridge in the Rain belongs to the period when Van Gogh clarified his palette and discovered new ways of framing. The prints show him that a landscape can be asymmetrical, cut by an edge, constructed by flat areas and animated by a few silhouettes. These solutions will be found in Arles in bridges, orchards and fields.
Rain will also remain a problem of lines. In Rain: wheat field F650, painted in Saint-Rémy in 1889, the streaks cross a western landscape observed from the asylum. The direct model is no longer Hiroshige, but the graphic lesson remains visible: an atmospheric phenomenon can become the entire structure of the surface.
To follow this development, consult Van Gogh in Paris, the Portrait of Father Tanguy and our guide to landscapes of Van Gogh.
Reproductions linked to Hiroshige and Japonism
Frequently asked questions
When did Van Gogh paint The Bridge in the Rain?
Van Gogh painted The Bridge in the Rain in Paris between October and November 1887.
Where is The Bridge in the Rain by Van Gogh?
The painting is kept at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam under inventory number s0114V1962.
What are the dimensions of the painting?
The Bridge in the Rain is an oil on canvas measuring 73.3 × 53.8 cm.
What are its catalog numbers?
The painting bears the references F372 in the De la Faille catalog and JH1297 in the Hulsker catalog.
What is Hiroshige's original print?
The model is Sudden Rush on Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake, an 1857 print from Edo's One Hundred Famous Views series.
Did Van Gogh faithfully copy Hiroshige?
He retained the overall composition, but translated the print in oil, reinforced the outlines, changed the colors, and added a border.
How Van Gogh paints rain?
He uses long, dark blue, almost vertical, slightly slanted touches, applied with a fine brush across the entire stage.
Do the Japanese characters on the border describe the bridge?
No. Van Gogh took them from two other prints and uses them mainly as decorative and rhythmic forms.
Are Van Gogh's colors brighter than Hiroshige's?
Yes. The current Van Gogh Museum notice states that Van Gogh intensifies the colors of the model, while adding a bright border.
Which works complement the Japaneseeries of 1887?
Plum in bloom F371, after Hiroshige, and La Courtisane F373, after Eisen, complete the group.
Main sources
- Van Gogh Museum via Google Arts & Culture, Bridge in the Rain: date, touch of rain and border (old notice) : date, colors, touch of rain and border.
- Van Gogh Museum, current notice s0114V1962: dimensions, catalogs and intensified colors.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sudden shower on Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake : title, date, technique and dimensions of a print.
- Van Gogh Museum, 2006 report : presentation of the work and context of Japonism.
- Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rain, 1889: field seen from the room and heritage of prints
Continue reading
Van Gogh and Japan · The Courtesan · Portrait of Father Tanguy · Van Gogh in Paris · Van Gogh's style · Landscapes of Van Gogh
Last editorial and factual verification: September 27, 2026.
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