Japanese painting: 100 famous works from Sesshû to Foujita

The first rows bring together the images that have truly shaped the memory of Japanese art: The Great Wave of Kanagawa, Pines in the Mist, the Iris of Kôrin, the Gods of Wind and Thunder of Sôtatsu, the red Fuji and the downpour by Hiroshige. Their fame comes from a silhouette, rhythm and framing that we often recognize before reading the cartel.

Hokusai gives Mount Fuji several lives. The Great Wave reduces it to a calm triangle under a gigantic sea; the red Fuji makes it monumental; Ejiri, Kajikazawa and the Mannen Bridge transform it into a landmark around which the wind, work and architecture organize the image. A still mountain, lots of ideas in motion.

Hiroshige paints the weather with blocks of wood, ink and a formidable science of framing. Sudden shower on Shin-Ohashi, pouring rain in Shouno, evening snow in Kanbara and Plum Garden in Kameido put rain, snow, bridges and trees in the foreground. Even bad weather has excellent artistic direction.

The narrative works change the visit into a journey. The Night Attack on Sanjô Palace deploys the panic of a battle for several meters; Kyoto's scenes organize streets, palaces and crowds like a miniature city. The gaze advances, returns and sometimes gets lost in a detail, which remains a very honorable way of missing its exit.

Sôtatsu, Kôrin, Hôitsu and Suzuki Kiitsu circulate the Rinpa spirit throughout the centuries. Gods of Wind and Thunder, Iris, Red and White Plum Trees, Violent Waves or Volubilis combine gold, flat areas, repetitions and asymmetry. Flowers remain flowers, but they also become rhythm, surface and architecture; the garden has obviously taken composition lessons.

Jakuchû, Maruyama Okyo and Nagasawa Rosetsu look at the living world with a precision that never sacrifices strangeness. Roosters, fish, cranes, tigers, white elephants and black bulls occupy the frame like individual presences. Rosetsu's famous tiger seems quite aware of its effect, even if no one has yet managed to ask him to sign the visitor register.

Portraits and figures connect painting, literature, religion and history. Beauty turning around, Takami Senseki, Maiko or Wang Zhaojun do not simply represent a model: costume, posture, decor and silence specify an era. The face remains calm while the whole painting works around it, excellent delegation of tasks.

In the 19th century, Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro, Katsushika Oi, Kawanabe Kyôsai and Kanô Hôgai moved the boundaries between tradition and invention. Prints are retained when they are among the most famous Japanese images, and their technique is named without disguising them as paintings. Engraved wood does not need a fake mustache to enter art history.

The modernization of the Meiji era and the beginning of the 20th century opened several paths. Kuroda Seiki develops the Yoga while Yokoyama Taikan, Uemura Shoen, Hishida Shunso, Murakami Kagaku and Tsuchida Bakusen renew the Nihonga. At the edge of the lake, Nu, Route carved into the hill, Flamme, Kiyohime or The Bath Handmaid do not tell of an abandonment of tradition, but of a conversation sometimes calm, sometimes electric with the present.

Foujita extends this story between Tokyo and Paris. His works remain protected and are therefore documented by the link to the official collection of the Pola Museum rather than by an image copied without authorization. The journey stops at his time, when the Japanese line, Western oil and the School of Paris meet on a surface that has become immediately recognizable. Even modernity, sometimes, can arrive with a very fine brush.