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Introduction

Japonisme

The Influence of Japanese Art on the West
November 4, 1994 - January 22, 1995

In 1872, French art critic Philippe Burty coined the term Japonisme to describe the study of Japanese art, history, and culture. Yet the impact of Japanese art in the West was apparant as early as the 1860s and lasted into the early twentieth century, exerting a profound influence on the formation of modern art, not only in France, but also in the rest of Europe and America.

For more than two centuries, Japan had been closed to the outside world, when in 1853 a small American fleet led by Rhode Island native Commodore Mathew C. Perry entered Tokyo Bay, prompting the Japanese government to open to the West. Until then, only a few works of Japanese art had entered Europe, imported by the Dutch who had a monopoly on trade with Japan. The treaty negotiated by Perry was swiftly followed by commercial agreemetns, and by the 1870s Japanese prints, fans, screens, ceramics and other items were widely available.

Following the opening of Japan, many western artists and critics collected and studied Japanese art, and each generation reacted differently, depending on its preconceptions and artisitic needs. Some artists used Japanese prints, costumes, and objects simply to evoke a romantic vision of a remote, exotic land. Otehrs, such as Impressionists Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas, incorporated Japanese compositional techniques as they strove to create a new way of representation. In the 1880s and 1890s Japanese ukiyo-e prints stimulated a wide range of technical experimentation with color lithography, and woodcut printing. For the advocates of Art Nouveau and reform of the decorative arts, Japanese color and played a significant role.

Selected Objects

No Image Available

Pierre Bonnard, designer

Les Chiens (The Dogs), 1893

Édouard Manet

La Queue Devant La Boucherie (Siège de Paris 1870-71), 1871
No Image Available

Katsushika Hokusai

Random sketches by Hokusai (Hokusai manga): Vol. 7, 1812-1849

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Mademoiselle Marcelle Lender, en Buste, 1895

Kitao Masayoshi

Abbreviated drawings of flowering plants, 1813

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen

Chemins de fer de l'Ouest, 1900

Katsushika Hokusai

Under Mannen Bridge, Fukagawa [Edo] (Fukagawa mannenbashi no shita), ca. 1829-1833
No Image Available

Eugène Samuel Grasset, designer

Mars, 1896

Edgar Degas, designer

Standing Nude Woman, Dressing, 1890

Vincent van Gogh

View of Arles, 1888

James Tissot

Croquet, ca. 1878
No Image Available

Eugène Samuel Grasset, designer

Avril, 1896

Henri Gabriel Ibels

Programme du Deuxième Spectacle de la Saison 1892-1893, 1892-1893

Edgar Degas

Dancer with a Bouquet, ca. 1877-1880

Édouard Manet

Le Chat et les Fleurs, 1862

Félix Hilaire Buhot

Winter in Paris or Paris in the Snow (L'Hiver à Paris ou La Neige à Paris), 1879
No Image Available

Henry Somm, designer

Menu, Ste. Octavie, 1800s

Kitagawa Utamaro

A mitate (parody) of Act 9 of Chushingura (Treasury of the Loyal Retainers) (Kyu-danme(Act 9)), ca. 1798-1799

Eugène Samuel Grasset, designer

Septembre, 1896
No Image Available

Charles Herbert Woodbury, designer

The July Century, 1895

Aristide Maillol, designer

The Wave (La Vague), 1898
No Image Available

Félix Edouard Vallotton

Le Bain (The Bath), 1894
No Image Available

Camille Pissarro, designer

Boulevard Monmartre, ca. 1899
No Image Available

Eugène Samuel Grasset, designer

Mai, 1896

Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)

Beauty on a balcony (Bijin), 1853.11

Arthur Wesley Dow

Modern Art, 1895
No Image Available

Katsushika Hokusai

Random sketches by Hokusai (Hokusai manga): Vol. 2, Bunkwa 13, 1816

Katsushika Hokusai

Random sketches by Hokusai (Hokusai manga): Vol. 1, 1814

Pierre Roche

Les Amis de l'art japonais, 1911

Emma Kaan

Pond Lily #4, ca. 1904

Mary Cassatt

Tea, 1890

Eugène Samuel Grasset

Janvier, 1896
No Image Available

Eugène Samuel Grasset, designer

Fevrier, 1896
No Image Available

Eugène Samuel Grasset, designer

Juin, 1896
No Image Available

Eugène Samuel Grasset, designer

Juillet, 1896
No Image Available

Eugène Samuel Grasset, designer

Août, 1896

Eugène Samuel Grasset, designer

Octobre, 1896

Eugène Samuel Grasset

Novembre, 1896

Eugène Samuel Grasset, designer

Décembre, 1896
No Image Available

Emil Orlik, designer

Untitled, late 1800s-early 1900s

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

May Milton, 1895
No Image Available

Emil Orlik, designer

Untitled, late 1800s-early 1900s
No Image Available

Emil Orlik, designer

Untitled, late 1800s-early 1900s
No Image Available

Camille Pissarro, designer

Le Pont de Pierre à Rouen, 1887

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

The Bridge, Santa Marta, 1879/1880

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Divan Japonais, 1892-1893

Édouard Manet

The Cats (Les Chats), 1868 - 1869 (probably printed later)

Utagawa Hiroshige

Yabu Lane at the Foot of Atago (Atagoshita yabukōji), 1857, 12th month

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen

Lait Pur Sterilisé de la Vingeanne, 1895

Totoya Hokkei

The Emperor Genso Meets His Concubine:Moon (Getsu), early 1820s

Edna Boies Hopkins

Purple Daisy, ca. 1907-1909

Henri Gabriel Ibels

Programme du Cinquième Spectacle de la Saison 1892-1893, 1892-1893

Félix Edouard Vallotton, designer

Swans, 1892

Edouard Vuillard, designer

Le Jardin des Tuileries, 1896

Maurice Denis

Maternité devant la Mer, 1900

Torii Kiyonaga

Beauty and Willow (Bijin to yanagi), ca. 1780

Paul Gauguin, printmaker

Baigneuses Bretonnes (Bathers in Brittany), 1889

James Tissot

Printemps, 1878

Pierre Bonnard, designer

La Revue Blanche, 1894

Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川 国芳

The bride's changing of clothes after the wedding ceremony (Konrei ironaoshi zu), 1844-1847

Édouard Manet

Marine, 1864

More objects +

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