Painted in Arles during the height of Van Gogh's obsession with Japonisme. The term "mousmé" was borrowed from Pierre Loti's popular 1887 novel Madame Chrysanthème, referring to a young Japanese girl. Van Gogh sought to translate the formal logic of Japanese woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) into a Provençal context, eliminating traditional chiaroscuro in favor of sharp structural outlines (cloisonnism) and a jarring tension between complementary colors (red/green and blue/orange).