{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "id": "a-tree-crosses-the-page",
  "title": "A tree crosses the page.",
  "question": "Why does the painting differ from the print he owned?",
  "format": "Interactive passage",
  "period": "1857 / 1887",
  "places": [
    "Edo",
    "Paris"
  ],
  "themes": [
    "Prints",
    "Translation",
    "Versions"
  ],
  "mediaKeys": [
    "van-gogh-plum"
  ],
  "next": [
    "first-steps",
    "a-blue-that-crossed-borders"
  ],
  "entities": [
    {
      "id": "hiroshige-kameido",
      "name": "Hiroshige, The Plum Garden at Kameido",
      "kind": "design",
      "date": "1857",
      "sourceId": "bm-plum",
      "note": "The design has multiple surviving print states."
    },
    {
      "id": "vincent-plum-impression",
      "name": "Fourth-state impression owned by Vincent van Gogh",
      "kind": "work",
      "date": "19th century",
      "sourceId": "bm-plum",
      "note": "Identified in the museum article; not substituted with an arbitrary impression."
    },
    {
      "id": "vincent-plum-tracing",
      "name": "Van Gogh’s tracing after the print",
      "kind": "document",
      "date": "1887",
      "sourceId": "bm-plum",
      "note": "Externally linked research image."
    },
    {
      "id": "vincent-plum-painting",
      "name": "Flowering Plum Orchard (after Hiroshige)",
      "kind": "work",
      "date": "1887",
      "sourceId": "vgm-plum",
      "note": "Van Gogh Museum s0115V1962.",
      "mediaKey": "van-gogh-plum"
    }
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "plum-adaptation",
      "text": "Van Gogh’s 1887 Flowering Plum Orchard adapts Hiroshige’s plum-garden design; the British Museum identifies his fourth-state impression and a tracing.",
      "kind": "adaptation",
      "status": "documented",
      "evidence": [
        {
          "sourceId": "vgm-plum",
          "locator": "Painting commentary; collection number s0115V1962"
        },
        {
          "sourceId": "bm-plum",
          "locator": "Discussion and caption identifying the fourth-state impression owned by Van Gogh and his tracing"
        }
      ],
      "limitation": "The design, the owned impression, the tracing and the painting are separate entities.",
      "from": "hiroshige-kameido",
      "to": "vincent-plum-painting"
    },
    {
      "id": "plum-border",
      "text": "The Van Gogh Museum identifies the painting’s orange borders and Japanese characters as additions to the borrowed composition.",
      "kind": "catalogue-fact",
      "status": "documented",
      "evidence": [
        {
          "sourceId": "vgm-gallery",
          "locator": "PDF p. 9, Flowering Plum Orchard (after Hiroshige)"
        }
      ],
      "limitation": "This does not make the characters a verified translation of the print’s original inscriptions."
    },
    {
      "id": "plum-earlier-state",
      "kind": "attributed-reference",
      "status": "attributed",
      "text": "Capucine Korenberg argues that the painting also recalls an earlier print state, despite Van Gogh’s owned fourth-state impression and surviving tracing.",
      "evidence": [
        {
          "sourceId": "bm-plum",
          "locator": "Van Gogh’s inspiration: a link to Hiroshige, final comparison of sky, flower centres and grass"
        }
      ],
      "limitation": "This is the researcher’s inference. An additional impression, its owner and a Paris encounter are not established."
    },
    {
      "id": "plum-four-states",
      "kind": "catalogue-fact",
      "status": "documented",
      "text": "Korenberg’s 2025 study examined photographs of 82 impressions and distinguished four printing states; eight impressions could not be assigned.",
      "evidence": [
        {
          "sourceId": "plum-study",
          "locator": "Section 3.5, Table 5 and conclusions"
        }
      ],
      "limitation": "The study uses surviving impressions and available photographs. A red sky alone does not prove a first state."
    }
  ],
  "treatment": {
    "kind": "print",
    "invitation": "Distinguish the design, the sheet and the painted adaptation.",
    "stops": [
      {
        "id": "design",
        "label": "1857",
        "title": "A design with several states",
        "text": "A title identifies a composition; it does not make every impression interchangeable. Follow the source article’s comparison of print states.",
        "claimIds": [
          "plum-adaptation"
        ],
        "entityId": "hiroshige-kameido"
      },
      {
        "id": "sheet",
        "label": "The intermediary",
        "title": "An owned sheet and a tracing",
        "text": "The museum article identifies an impression and a tracing. These provide more specific evidence than general admiration for Japanese art.",
        "claimIds": [
          "plum-adaptation"
        ],
        "entityId": "vincent-plum-impression"
      },
      {
        "id": "paint",
        "label": "1887",
        "title": "The frame changes the encounter",
        "text": "Korenberg argues that the painting also resembles an earlier state. The orange border is only the most conspicuous change; inspect the sky, grass and flower centres at the source.",
        "claimIds": [
          "plum-earlier-state",
          "plum-border"
        ],
        "entityId": "vincent-plum-painting"
      }
    ]
  },
  "sections": [
    {
      "id": "near",
      "title": "The familiar branch hides a less familiar puzzle.",
      "voice": "Close reading",
      "paragraphs": [
        "The thick foreground branch interrupts the orchard before the eye can reach its small figures. In Van Gogh’s painting, it also leads into an orange border filled with Japanese characters. The tree and the added frame compete to decide where the picture ends.",
        "The Van Gogh Museum’s gallery text identifies those borders as additions. But the painting’s differences are not confined to its frame. Capucine Korenberg’s British Museum account argues that its red sky, yellow flower centres and blue shading in the grass recall an earlier print state than the one Van Gogh owned."
      ],
      "claimIds": [
        "plum-border",
        "plum-earlier-state"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "sheet",
      "title": "The sheet he owned does not settle the source.",
      "voice": "Historical account",
      "paragraphs": [
        "Korenberg identifies Van Gogh’s owned impression as fourth state, with a surviving tracing. Her study of 82 photographed impressions distinguishes four states; eight photographs could not be assigned because their evidence was obscured or inadequate. State identification rests on combinations of details, not simply a red sky.",
        "In the museum article, she proposes that the painting also draws on an earlier impression, perhaps seen in Paris. The particular additional sheet and encounter remain unidentified. The owned print, tracing and painting give us a real chain of objects—and a reason not to imagine that the chain explains every painted choice."
      ],
      "claimIds": [
        "plum-adaptation",
        "plum-four-states",
        "plum-earlier-state"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "edition": "pilot",
  "version": "a-tree-crosses-the-page.3",
  "route": "/afterlives/a-tree-crosses-the-page",
  "primaryClaimId": "plum-adaptation",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "plum-study",
      "title": "Variations in Hiroshige’s Print ‘The Plum Garden at Kameido’ (2025), Heritage 8(2), 74",
      "author": "Capucine Korenberg",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage8020074",
      "kind": "scholarship",
      "locator": "Section 3.5, Table 5 and conclusions",
      "supports": "Study of 82 photographed impressions; four states distinguished; eight unassigned. A red sky alone is not sufficient state evidence.",
      "limitation": "The photographic sample concerns surviving impressions. The painting’s proposed earlier-state source is an argument in the separate museum article, not a demonstrated additional sheet.",
      "language": "en",
      "checked": "2026-10-17",
      "verification": {
        "checked": "2026-10-17",
        "method": "indexed-text",
        "note": "Relevant indexed primary-source text checked. Direct scripted access was blocked, empty or incomplete; this is not recorded as a successful full-page retrieval."
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "vgm-gallery",
      "title": "Permanent collection gallery texts: Dreaming of Japan",
      "author": "Van Gogh Museum",
      "url": "https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/assets/b023267d-2d87-43a6-88bf-956d4213f2cc?c=52f4bba580232396dbe6bf84801c5783b3e42cd25daff1bd91fef735c9d7bc52",
      "kind": "institutional-account",
      "locator": "PDF p. 9, Flowering Plum Orchard (after Hiroshige)",
      "supports": "1887 painting; changed colour and added orange borders with Japanese characters.",
      "limitation": "An institutional gallery interpretation, not a transcript establishing the characters as a translation.",
      "language": "en",
      "checked": "2026-10-17",
      "verification": {
        "checked": "2026-10-17",
        "method": "catalogue-pdf",
        "note": "Relevant source passage checked in the institutional PDF; catalogue reproductions remain subject to their own image rights."
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "vgm-plum",
      "title": "Flowering Plum Orchard (after Hiroshige)",
      "author": "Van Gogh Museum",
      "url": "https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0115V1962",
      "kind": "object-record",
      "locator": "Painting commentary; collection number s0115V1962",
      "supports": "The 1887 adaptation of Hiroshige and added orange borders with Japanese characters.",
      "limitation": "Descriptive interpretation belongs to the museum. A reproduction of another impression must not be labeled as Vincent's own sheet.",
      "language": "en",
      "checked": "2026-10-17",
      "verification": {
        "checked": "2026-10-17",
        "method": "indexed-text",
        "note": "Indexed work identification checked; narrative claims are separately supported by the museum’s gallery-text PDF."
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "bm-plum",
      "title": "Tracking down the Plum Garden: Hiroshige, Van Gogh and the Edo 'Instagram'",
      "author": "British Museum",
      "url": "https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/tracking-down-plum-garden-hiroshige-van-gogh-and-edo-instagram",
      "kind": "institutional-account",
      "locator": "Discussion and caption identifying the fourth-state impression owned by Van Gogh and his tracing",
      "supports": "A particular print state, a tracing and the 1887 painted adaptation; variation between impressions.",
      "limitation": "No claim that every surviving impression is identical. Museum photographs remain external references unless separately cleared.",
      "language": "en",
      "checked": "2026-10-17",
      "verification": {
        "checked": "2026-10-17",
        "method": "indexed-text",
        "note": "Relevant indexed primary-source text checked. Direct scripted access was blocked, empty or incomplete; this is not recorded as a successful full-page retrieval."
      }
    }
  ],
  "reception": {
    "reach": "The surviving owned print and tracing establish a specific encounter with the design. No additional gallery encounter is documented.",
    "response": "Korenberg proposes earlier-state features in the painting. This is a research interpretation rather than a new artist statement.",
    "consequence": "The revised case complicates a one-sheet copying story while preserving the documented adaptation and the unresolved intermediary."
  },
  "review": {
    "checked": "2026-10-17",
    "research": "source-checked",
    "independent": "pending",
    "assistance": "Source verification and prose revised with AI assistance. Independent specialist review remains pending.",
    "editorial": {
      "checked": "2026-10-17",
      "method": "AI-assisted source and prose review",
      "focus": "The print he owned may not explain every detail he painted.",
      "changes": [
        "Recovered the museum article’s earlier-state argument, which the first edition omitted.",
        "Added Korenberg’s DOI-linked study, its 82-impression sample and eight unassigned cases.",
        "Kept the proposed additional impression and Paris encounter uncertain; checked orange borders against the museum gallery text.",
        "Bound the final passage stop to the attributed earlier-state inference as well as the border record."
      ]
    }
  },
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "a-tree-crosses-the-page.1",
      "date": "2026-10-17",
      "note": "First source-checked review edition. Historical claims and original readings are distinguished; image permissions are recorded separately."
    },
    {
      "version": "a-tree-crosses-the-page.2",
      "date": "2026-10-17",
      "note": "Recovered the museum article’s earlier-state argument, which the first edition omitted. Added Korenberg’s DOI-linked study, its 82-impression sample and eight unassigned cases. Kept the proposed additional impression and Paris encounter uncertain; checked orange borders against the museum gallery text."
    },
    {
      "version": "a-tree-crosses-the-page.3",
      "date": "2026-10-17",
      "note": "Recovered the museum article’s earlier-state argument, which the first edition omitted. Added Korenberg’s DOI-linked study, its 82-impression sample and eight unassigned cases. Kept the proposed additional impression and Paris encounter uncertain; checked orange borders against the museum gallery text. Bound the final passage stop to the attributed earlier-state inference as well as the border record."
    }
  ],
  "summary": "Van Gogh’s 1887 Flowering Plum Orchard adapts Hiroshige’s plum-garden design; the British Museum identifies his fourth-state impression and a tracing.",
  "canonical": "https://artologium.com/afterlives/a-tree-crosses-the-page",
  "releaseStatus": "Local review edition; editorially revised with AI assistance; independent specialist review pending",
  "socialPreview": "Canonical investigation card. Selected passage is preserved in the URL and export, not pictured in the card.",
  "media": [
    {
      "key": "van-gogh-plum",
      "title": "Flowering Plum Orchard (after Hiroshige)",
      "creator": "Vincent van Gogh",
      "date": "1887",
      "institution": "Van Gogh Museum / Wikimedia Commons",
      "accession": "s0115V1962",
      "sourceUrl": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vincent_van_Gogh_-_Bloeiende_pruimenboomgaard-_naar_Hiroshige_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg",
      "sourceImage": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Vincent_van_Gogh_-_Bloeiende_pruimenboomgaard-_naar_Hiroshige_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg",
      "license": "Public Domain",
      "licenseUrl": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
      "rightsSource": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vincent_van_Gogh_-_Bloeiende_pruimenboomgaard-_naar_Hiroshige_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg#Licensing",
      "creditLine": "Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation). Google Art Project reproduction via Wikimedia Commons; file marked public domain as a faithful reproduction of a two-dimensional public-domain work.",
      "alt": "A dark foreground plum branch crosses a green orchard and red sky, framed by orange bands with Japanese characters.",
      "rightsStatus": "open",
      "changes": "Resized and JPEG compressed. Full composition retained; no recoloring.",
      "src": "/images/research/van-gogh-plum.jpg",
      "width": 1178,
      "height": 1400,
      "sha256": "d4662bf893291f0d6891a4086d99267ec7d75a1dca31ee5ddbd4acb66fe050bc",
      "sourceSha256": "e0c9cc7b30a81cf2545859c7dd4cd1123bd0a047984e43c1b044aaaffe6c0708",
      "retrieved": "2026-10-18T01:01:29.574Z",
      "displayVariants": [],
      "displayCrop": null
    }
  ]
}