With the Montblanc Masters of Art Homage to Vincent van Gogh Limited Edition 888, Montblanc celebrates Vincent van Gogh, one of the most popular painters of the late 19th century. This edition especially emphasizes his time in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and Auvers-sur-Oise, with design details reflecting the Provencal skies and one of his most famous paintings, “Wheatfield with Crows”. The engraved 1889 on the barrel ring - next to Vincent's signature in blue lacquer - commemorates the year when he moved to Saint-Rémy. Vincent Van Gogh created memorable impressions of the gardens and wheatfields near the asylum where he lived. Paintings like the famous “Wheatfield with Crows”, of this period, marked his maturity as an artist and inspired the color composition of the edition’s cap. The provencial blue skies and golden wheatfields are reflected in translucent lacquer inlays in different shades of blue and the Au 750 solid yellow gold skeleton overlay. The stars shining brightly on the night heavens over the wheatfields are represented by the sparkling particles in the blue lacquer of the barrel and in the Au 750 solid yellow gold Montblanc emblem on the cap top, embedded in blue lacquer. Vincent van Gogh created over 200 paintings in southern France, developing a looser, freer style and becoming equally competent with brush and palette knife – which he used to create a chunky, impetuous “impasto” style. His palette knife inspired the platinum-coated clip, while his sweeping brushwork is immortalized in the blue lacquer of the cap top. Furthermore, his fondness for pipe smoking, to which he referred in many of his self-portraits, is captured in a subtle detail of the clip: the upper part is shaped like a pipe’s bowl and is adorned with a yellow citrine. The image embossed on the Au 750 solid yellow gold nib immortalizes Vincent’s painting “Almond Blossom”. Its Japanese-inspired style can be traced back to a fashionable admiration of Japanese art known at the time as Japonisme. The overall silhouette is shaped like a Japanese woodcutting knife, as a symbol of Van Gogh’s personal fascination with traditional Japanese woodblock prints.