Utagawa Hiroshige - Cherry Blossoms Japanese woodcuts, which had been recently introduced in France at that time, were a great discovery for Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, among them Toulouse Lautrec, who made Van Gogh acquainted with this new trend. Van Gogh was deeply impressed by the color choice and bold compositional shapes; he purchased several woodcuts and reproduced them in as many paintings, especially in the portraits of Pere Tanguy, where Japanese woodcuts covered the walls.