Vincent van Gogh collected hundreds of Japanese prints, which he bought from the Paris art dealer Siegfried Bing in a single brief period in the winter of 1886–87. He owned a large number of Japanese prints, and he preferred prints with bright colors and attractive motifs, such as geishas in kimonos and exotic landscapes. Van Gogh admired the prints mastery of strong colors, everyday subjects, and decorative qualities, and he displayed them in his studio as inspiration. Van Gogh most likely bought the Japanese woodcuts on a whim, intending to start trading in the prints. When nothing came of this plan, he began to study them more closely in the course of 1887. In the autumn of that year, he painted three copies of prints in his collection and worked them into the background of his portraits. Theo and later his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, took good care of Van Gogh’s Japanese prints, so that the majority of them eventually found their way into the Van Gogh Museum.