Japonisme and 19th Century Artists
Japonisme is a cultural tendency of admiration and fascination with all things Japanese, which was developed in Western Europe society. It started to form in 1867 when Japanese ceramics and many other crafts and art works were presented in the Paris Exposition Universelle. Among those, Ukiyo-e was also included, and in Japan at that time, Ukiyo-e was not rated high since it was colored wood block printings about genre of low class people. When Japan started to trade with Erope, Ukiyo-e was used to wrap other goods and it was easily obtainable at the tea shops. However, there were some artists recognize Ukiyo-e ahead of time and they were Impressionist artists like Manet and Monet. They could find a tradition that was not damaged by rules and stereotyped measures of academic, which the French artists tried to remove. Ukiyo-e was a popular form of printed art in Japan during the Edo period which was usually depicting scenes from everyday lives such as life of the common people, the background of a stage, beautiful women on streets or prostitutes, landscapes and more. Ukiyo-e is especially known for its exceptional woodblock prints. Ukiyo-e woodblock prints were not black and white, but it was very colorful and bright colored woodblock prints. Ukiyo-e’s special features are first, the use of line and the flatness. Ukiyo-e was formed by line, which they outlined all the figures and the objects in the print, and the blank space and the designed part were divided very clearly, so it did not give three dimensional effect. Second, Ukiyo-e showed bright and unrestricted color. Bright and intense color made the print very flat and gave enrich of expression. So it especially affected impressionist artists. Third, there was composition of irregularity and asymmetry. Ukiyo-e was drawn the part that was very impressed in the artist’s eyes. So the features like slopped composition of looking down from the above, the “thing” was

gotten out of the middle, or the “thing” could be cutout at the picture’s edge were unimaginable things in Western European traditional art. Finally, the subject matter of Ukiyo-e was mostly about everyday lives. Impressionism was also reflected cityscapes and real lives of people like Ukiyo-e, so subject matter was similar and it shows it was the influence of Ukiyo-e. Japanese wood block printings helped French artists to realize much of European conventionality was still in them without knowing. Japanese artists enjoyed the accident and special part of a “thing.” They did not hesitate to draw glimpsed scene of Mountain Fuji behind the well or cutout human body by the edge of the printing. Like this, the part of ignoring the basic rules of European academic art such as perspective and the composition of human body does not get cutout gave impressionist artists the shock. By those art rules, they found out that a dominant knowledge of European artists in a vision was still existed and they tried to break down the conventional tradition knowledge in their painting. That was impossible without the help of Japanese Ukiyo-e. One of the most important assistant to help the impressionists artists to find new subject, composition, and new color composition was Ukiyo-e. Most of the impressionist artists showed the tendency of Japonisme in their paintings. Japonisme influenced impressionist artists like Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, and Vincent van Gogh (post-impressionist). First of all, Edgar Degas had an influence of Ukiyo-e on composition. Degas was in the group of impressionist artists, but he had his own special features in his art of painting. If Impressionism pursued for freedom on light and color, Degas pursued for freedom on space and composition. His painting called, “Race Hoses” in 1868 shows the special art form that Degas pursued for. During the 1860’s and after, Degas often

painted the paintings about horse racing which was popular sport at that time between the nobles. However, he painted the scene of the before the racing started or the after the racing which the moment that was not that important. This artwork’s composition is very unprecedented and unconventional. It feels like Degas put the scene in his painting which he just glanced over the moment of the horse riders’ excitement on horses. The center of this painting is empty, all the spectators gathered on the left and the real main models, the horse riders are arranged on the edges of each side. It gives an illusion that the theme of this painting is the shades which filled up the middle of the field. He cuts out the head of a horse and the part of the spectators which gives the effect of looking at a snapshot. This kind of composition that Degas tried was under the influence of composition of Ukiyo-e. Secondly, very well known impressionist artist Claude Monet was also affected by Japonisme. Monet was fascinated with Japonisme and he started to collect those Japanese woodblock prints from when he was 17 years old and for his art subject, he often drew Japanese traditional costumes or Japanese style background and he also decorated the walls of his house with Ukiyo-e. Monet painted lots of paintings about his wife Camille Doncieux. Among those, the painting, “La Japonaise” was painted in 1876; it was three years before Camille died. Monet painted this to submit in the Second Impressionist Exhibition and it was painted in the actual size of a human body. In the painting, Camille is dancing in Japanese traditional costume, kimono, which is lavishly embroidered, holding a Japanese fan in her hand and she also wears a blond wig. The background is decorated with lots of colorful and fancy Japanese fans. Those were the items that could be bought cheaply in many shops in Paris. This painting, “La Japonaise” was the Monet’s imitation Ukiyo-e and it shows the influence of Japonisme

well. Finally, Vincent van Gogh was also influenced by Japonisme and he absorbed it as his own style in his paintings. He collected Ukiyo-e and he was a great fan of Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige. Van Gogh also imitated Hiroshige’s art works and he also copied some Japanese words around the imitated painting to give a frame effect. In the painting, “Portrait of Pere Tanguy”, in 1887, van Gogh shows the influence of Ukiyo-e. Tanguy was a merchant of art supplies in Montmartre. Tanguy is sitting frontal in the painting and it gives a very strong impression. The colors shown in Tanguy’s face, arms and clothes of red, orange, green and those strong colors are not like the traditional art works and those were used by his own artistic judgment. Also, there are four fancy Ukiyo-e are in the background. Van Gogh divided the space by using color and the vivid expression of the front figure and structure makes audience to focus on the figure. In this painting, there is no element of showing space or threedimensional effect. The flatness of the painting shows the special feature of Japanese art. Also, van Gogh outlined around the figure and other goods. The using of line like this is also what he learned by Ukiyo-e. The elements that break the traditional art in the impressionism were affected by Ukiyo-e in Japonisme. Degas’s composition which shows the cutout of the figures, Monet’s fascination with Japanese art and lastly, the art works of van Gogh show the influence of Japonisme in the 19th century art.