The Influence Of Japanese Culture On Western Art

Throughout time, art has inspired and been inspired. This is seen through many movements that have taken influence from cultures and art from other parts of the world. Western art in particular has been greatly influenced by Japanese painting and woodblock prints. The further development of trade between Asia and Europe allowed the convergence of cultures to happen and it sparked the impressionist movement, among others, to form. Though many artists have been stimulated by these discoveries, some main ones are Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet, as well as Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt. Without the development of relationships between the western and Asian countries, art wouldn’t be where it is today.

Trade felt a surge in the beginning of the 1850’s between Japan and Europe. Previously it was closed off for over 200 years and this limited what the West knew about Japan. Because of the start of trading, it caused both to be exposed to one another’s goods and cultures. In 1853, a United States Navy Commodore named, Matthew Perry, sailed his ship to the Edo Bay in Japan. His goal was to reestablish regular trade. It’s important to note that he was not the first Western to visit Japan. In 1867, Paris held one of their World Fairs and in total brought 32 countries and their colonies together, including Japan. This is when the French term Japonisme emerged. It signifies the influence of Japanese art on Western art aesthetics and style. Japnoisme went on to inspire movements like impressionism, art nouveau and modernism. (‘Milestones: 1830–1860 – Office Of The Historian’ 2019)

People in Europe were very attracted to Japan’s Ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings. These were primarily created during the Edo period. The word ukiyo once referred to the Buddhist idea of the transitory nature of life and its cycle. The meaning developed into a more positive perspective meaning “floating world” and “wafting of life’s worldly pleasures”. People and their environments were popular subjects depicted. Some commonly seen themes are landscapes, sumo wrestlers, actors and women. The Mount Fuji landscape is one that can be seen through a variety of works. Though artists had their own distinct style, there was a theme of aerial perspectives, outlined shapes and flat color. This is associated with traditional Japanese art called yamato-e. (Seiferle 2019)

Ukiyo-e art was derived from China and were initially prints for Buddhist scripture and texts. In the late seventeenth century artists started to make stand-alone prints that weren’t part of books. People started to want to utilize color instead of only black ink prints and artists then experimented with different pigments to make color. This process was fairly cheap and added to the popularity of prints in Edo (Tokyo). Ukiyo-e at first wasn’t seen as works of art, but was more for everyday life. It was seen in advertisements for things like theater and shops and would sometimes be used to wrap things that were traded to Europe among other places. It was also used to advertise cosmetics. A work by Kitagawa Utamaro titled Courtesan Hanaogi of the Ogi-ya and Her Attendants (1798), illustrates a woman with white face powder and red lips with black eyebrows that conveys the makeup trends of the time. Other popular artists besides Utamaro that were associated with Ukiyo-e are Katsushika Hoksuai, Utagawa Hiroshige, Hishikawa Moronobu and Okumura Masanobu.

When Van Gogh moved to Paris in 1886 he began to explore impressionism and became fascinated with ukiyo-e prints. What caught his eye were the bold designs and colors with a contrast of simple outlines. (‘Inspiration From Japan’ 2019) A few of his paintings are replicas of prints with an impressionist twist. His work The Courtesan (after Eisen)(1887), was created after the original version Courtesan, Unryu Uchikake no Orian by Keisai Eisen. Van Gogh’s version shows the woman reversed in bright, thick , more abstract brushstrokes. He also added more depth through texture and color, but still maintained the ukiyo-e tradition of outlines. Though they use black and more neutral colors to outline, he utilizes darker shades of the vibrant colors. In addition, he created a border around the image. Despite the original work not including this, Van Gogh still maintained the theme of Japanese culture by painting cranes, bamboo and a small frog in the foreground.

Another work that shows inspiration from Japanese art is The Starry Night (1889), which has parallel qualities to Katsushika Hoksuai’s, The Great Wave of Kanagawa . They both have similar movement from the waviness of the sky to the fluidness of the wave. Each causes the eye to move in a circular rounded motion throughout the works. The composition of Les Alpilles mirrors that of the wave and boats where the focal point is off to the left and almost touches the top of the image. Van Gogh repeats a similar composition substitution with the church in the middle ground.

The piece titled Bridge in the Rain (1887) by Van Gogh shows inspiration from Hiroshige’s piece, Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi Bridge (1857). Though they are fairly identical in terms of imagery, the application and technique is completely different. In Hiroshige’s version, there’s little to no depth in shading and has minimal color usage. Again, Van Gogh uses a more impressionistic approach and has a wide range of values within the color. His colors are more blurred and aren’t solid and flat. The image can be argued as appearing more cheerful due to this. With his technique, it also isn’t as evident that it’s raining because the lines of the raindrops blend more. In addition, Van Gogh has taken inspiration from Hiroshige’s stamped signature and incorporated it into a decorative border consisting of a balancing of the shapes. It’s evident that Van Gogh was inspired by the subject matter of Japanese prints, as well as the quality of outlining shapes.

Van Gogh’s piece, The Plum Orchard In Kameido (after Hiroshig) (1887), shares a similar take to Bridge in the Rain. He modeled it after The Plum Orchard in Kameido by Hiroshige (1857). He continued to use thick, textured brush strokes to give it depth. He also created a warmer color scheme that creates a less serene image. Instead of taking the artist’s stamp and applying it to the framed edge, he left it where they were and created a border of calligraphic letters. He doesn’t have as many shadows compared to Hiroshige’s, which makes it appear slightly flatter overall. Hiroshige’s feels more in the essence of water color whereas it’s evident that Van Gogh’s is a thicker paint and application. There isn’t as much of a delicate quality and doesn’t have the same romantic nature effect that ukiyo-e prints tend to have.

In his work called Almond Blossom (1890), he isn’t replicating an ukiyo-e print but carries a similar theme of subject matter with nature. He also continues to outline all of the shapes and fills them with a dynamic color minimal that would typically be flat in Japanese art. He once wrote a letter to his brother Theo saying “Japanese art is something like the primitives, like the Greeks, like our old Dutchmen, Rembrandt, Potter, Hals, Vermeer, Ostade, Ruisdael. It doesn’t end.” (‘Inspiration From Japan’ 2019).

This quote shows the amount of respect and admiration that Van Gogh had for Japanese art. It had a huge impact on his work and how he viewed his everyday surroundings. He added his own spin on ukiyo-e prints by giving the original flat colors more depth and this ultimately converted the inspired works to become more impressionistic. Van Gogh wrote numerous letters to his brother talking about how wonderful and valuable Japanese art is. He not only admired the art, but their way of thought. He moved to Arles, France to try to start an artist community that was similar to Japanese Buddhist monks.

In 1871, Claude Monet began his collection of Japanese prints. In total he had 231 woodblock prints in his home in Giverny, France (‘Conservation In Action: La Japonaise’ 2019). Monet was particularly drawn to Hokusai’s work and collected many of his works. He was influenced by composition and culture which is shown in his choice of subject matter. Monet’s painting, Camille Monet in Japanese Costume (1876), illustrates his interests in Japanese culture through imagery. His wife, Camille, is in a detailed kimono surrounded by fans that have cranes and other natural themes that also crossover into Japanese Art. Underneath her is also a tatami mat, which is a type of Japanese flooring. He painted Camille with a blond wig to emphasize her Western identity. He did this to accentuate her difference from things that were considered exotic. The fan in her hand has colors that relate to the French flag to contrast her Parisian identity even more from Japanese. Besides art, Monet also took inspiration from Japanese landscapes and built his own Asian water garden. He enjoyed the role that nature played and wanted to replicate similar motifs in his work.

In 1899, he painted 12 works that focused on his Japanese footbridge in his garden (1922). The images of his bridge have visual ties to Hiroshige’s series titled One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, (1857). Both display bridges and have a similar composition where your eye is drawn towards the middle right of the image. In Monet’s version he utilizes greenery and trees to do this, whereas in Hiroshige’s, he uses what appears to be buildings. His water lilies paintings were possibly derived from Hokusai’s Japanese Flower Concentration. Monet’s Water Lilies don’t have a background and this coincides with the flower concentration having a lack of background. It justified that the beauty of a flower didn’t need a background to make it more beautiful.

Aside from art, Monet was drawn to the relationship Japan had with nature. When he moved to his house in Giverny, France he constructed a garden that has two separate sections. One part is standard floral and the other is a water garden that he derived from his love for Japan. It includes a Japanese bridge and oriental plants. His water lilies are also in this part and he employed a special gardener to take care of them because he admired them so much. This shows the influence of not only art, but also the cultural impact Japan had on many individual artists.

Edgar Degas became deeply connected with Japanese sketches. He was inspired by their use of linear emphasis, asymmetrical compositions and aerial perspectives (Jay 2019). Degas also adopted the theme of women in their public and private lives, which is like the female depictions in Japanese art. His piece Woman Combing her Hair (1885), can be compared to Utagawa Hiroshige’s, Yamauba Combing Her Hair and Kintoki (1801). They both contain nude women combining their hair. There is a level of intimacy due to the composition being closer up to the figure, with less space for a background. A focus is on the body because of the lack of eye contact from the women. Though they do have different brush style, it invokes an alike feeling because of subject matter and layout.

A similar work by Degas, The Tub (1886) shows parallels to Katshushika Hokusai’s, Public Bath (1820). Again, he uses a woman who is bathing as the focal point, same as Hokusai. They both also show a higher up perspective that peers down making their bodies have more visual impact than their faces. They have similar color schemes that are both muted and neutral. Though Hokusai’s shows a wider compositional view that offers visibility of the whole room, Degas crops in which makes the image feel even more intimate.

Degas’ work, Dancers practicing at the Barre (1877) is comparable to Willows and Bridge (Early 17th century) in terms of strong diagonal lines in composition. In his, he uses the barre to create the diagonal that takes the viewer from one side of the painting to the other, while the Japanese painting creates a diagonal through the yellow bridge. Willows and Bridge has a space that is filled more with objects and shapes, but Degas utilizes a quieter space that is filled with shifts in color to represent a fuller composition. Someone once said that in Degas’ work, “If you change the ballet dancer and stage performers to bijin-ga and kabuki, you can see a rich vein materializing whereby his own artistic culture fused with Japanese art.” (Jay 2019)

Mary Cassatt was highly influenced by Kitagawa Utamaro and his printmaking. After she saw the 1890 exhibition in Paris of Japanese Woodcuts she decided she wanted to create her own series of prints. She began an investigation into dry points about a year later. Cassatt also found inspiration in how women and familial scenes were depicted after studying Japanese woodcuts. (‘Aestheticism And Japan: The Cult Of The Orient’ 2019) Her pieces are often a mother taking care of a child or women in everyday situations. Like the woodcuts, she chose to utilize flat shapes and color with a darker or black outline. Her work, The Letter (1890) shows a woman sealing an envelope with an elaborate use of pattern in her dress and the wallpaper. Kitagawa Utamaro has a similar print called Courtesan Hinazuru from the Keizetsu House (1795). The woman in this scene has a similar positioning as Cassatt’s and also is holding something resembling a letter in her mouth. Both women are observed focusing on a task and neither make eye contact with the viewer. In addition, the color application is fairly flat and has a lighter quality. A difference is the usage of hands in the frame: Cassatt’s exposes both hands, while Utamaro shows them hidden under her clothing which may be due to the particular task of each woman being performed.

Cassatt’s, Woman Bathing (1891), shows indication of Japanese influence, especially through the subject matter. A woman bathing was very popular throughout many ukiyo-e prints. In Woman Bathing Under Flowers by Utagawa Toyokuni, a woman is half dressed and washing herself, similar to what Cassatt illustrates. There’s little difference in terms of style between the two. Cassatt decided to do a different hair treatment which contrasts against the flat shapes as being wispier and textured. The color treatment is fairly identical aside from her more pigmented skin color. She also has westernized it more through the woman washing her face in more of a sink. In addition, she took the flowers traditionally used in ukiyo-e and applied it to the carpet as a pattern.

Another one of Cassatt’s works, The Fitting (1890) continues the use of Japanese inspiration. One woman is helping another get fitted for a dress. The color is flat and has an airy quality due to the fading of color in certain parts. Floral pattern is again used on the walls and floor, which is taken from and modernized from the floral in ukiyo-e prints.

It’s evident that Japan has had a great influence on art, especially in the Western world. The impact of the culture extended into the lives of the artists, especially Van Gogh and Monet. They adopted the culture further into their lives; Van Gogh wanted to model an artist community after Japanese Buddhist Monks, and Monet created a garden that owed a lot of aspects to Japan’s relationship with nature. The art of printmaking was adopted by Van Gogh and Mary Cassatt both. All the artists discussed embraced techniques and subject matters used in Japanese art. Without the influence of trade in the 1850’s, impressionism may not have become what we know it is today. The spread of art through trade had the ability to also spread culture and understanding into many people’s lives.