Japonisme

For more than two centuries Japan allowed almost no foreign trade. In 1853 and 1854 the American Commodore Matthew Perry forced it open, and trade treaties followed. Japanese goods, including ukiyo-e prints, fans, ceramics and textiles, poured into Europe and the United States. The Paris world's fair of 1867 showed Japanese arts to huge crowds. In 1872 the French critic Philippe Burty gave the craze its name: Japonisme.

Western artists saw in the prints a new way of making pictures: flat areas of bright color, bold outlines, no shading, high or tilted viewpoints, figures cut off by the edge, empty space as part of the design, and everyday subjects. Whistler, Degas, Cassatt, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec and many others studied them.

Key idea

After Japan opened to trade in the 1850s, Japanese prints poured into Europe; their flat color, bold cropping and high viewpoints inspired Degas, Van Gogh, Cassatt and others.

Looking closely: Van Gogh copies Hiroshige

Hiroshige's print of 1857 (A) and Van Gogh's painted copy of 1887 (B).

Describe. In 1887 in Paris, Vincent van Gogh copied Hiroshige's Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake in oil paint. The bridge, the hurrying figures and the slanting rain are all there. Analyze. Van Gogh enlarged the scene, made the colors stronger (a vivid yellow bridge, a green-blue river) and added a wide border filled with Japanese characters copied from other prints, in red and green. The flat color areas and the bridge cutting diagonally across the picture come straight from the print. Interpret. Van Gogh was learning. He and his brother Theo collected hundreds of Japanese prints, and he wrote that all his work was based to some extent on Japanese art. The copy shows him absorbing its flatness, its strong color and its bold design.

Why it works

Japanese prints offered an alternative to the rules Western artists had followed since the Renaissance: one-point perspective, modeling in light and shade, a centered subject. At a moment when photography was taking over exact description, those rules looked less necessary, and the prints showed that a picture could be strong, flat and decorative instead.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Divan Japonais, 1893. Color lithograph poster.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864 to 1901) used the same lessons for posters: flat silhouettes, a high viewpoint, figures cut by the edge and bold lettering. Divan Japonais advertised a Paris café-concert decorated in Japanese style.

Common mistake

People think the influence went only one way. In the same years, after the Meiji government took power in 1868, many Japanese artists studied Western oil painting, perspective and shading, and the government invited European teachers. Exchange went in both directions, and Japanese printmakers like Hokusai had already absorbed Western perspective decades earlier.

Worked example: Spot the Japanese lessons

A Paris painting of 1880 shows a theater box from high above, with a figure cut in half by the frame and a large empty area of flat color. Name the Japanese print lessons.

A high viewpoint looking down.
Bold cropping: a figure cut by the edge.
A flat area of color used as part of the design.

Answer: High viewpoint, cropping and flat color.

Japonisme

Looking closely: Van Gogh copies Hiroshige

Practice

Builds on

Leads to

Sources and further reading