Since the 1850s · Japanese print and renewal of Western arts

Japonism refers to Western fascination with the arts of Japan and their profound influence on the composition, color, decor and objects of modernity.

After the forced opening of Japanese ports to international trade in 1853 -1854, prints, fans, ceramics, lacquers, textiles and illustrated books circulated massively in Europe and the United States. The Universal Exhibitions in Paris in 1867 and 1878 accelerated this discovery. At the beginning of the 1870s, French critics used the word "Japonism" to describe a passion that went beyond the simple collection of objects. Artists observed solutions foreign to the Western perspective in the ukiyo-e of Hokusai, Hiroshige or Utamaro: cut frames, plunging views, asymmetry, large areas, sharp contours, repeated patterns and shallow space in the ukiyo-e of Hokusai, Hiroshige or Utamaro: cut frames, plunging views, asymmetry, large areas, sharp contours, repeated patterns and space. shallow. Monet collects prints and plays with the imagination of the kimono in La Japonaise. Van Gogh copies Hiroshige directly, but enlarges the colors, thickens the contours and adds decorative borders in order to construct his own language. His Portrait of Father Tanguy places the model in front of a veritable mosaic of Japanese images. Whistler, Degas, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, the Nabis and the artists of Art Nouveau extend this transformation in painting, posters, furniture, textiles and architecture. The Great Wave of Kanagawa, however, reminds us that Japonism begins with Japanese works with their own contexts. The Great Wave of Kanagawa, however, reminds us that Japonism begins with Japanese works with their own contexts. The history of the movement must therefore combine admiration and invention, without erasing the simplifications, fantasies and power relations produced by the Western gaze. The "Japonisme" selection notably compares Kanagawa’s The Great Wave and La Japonaise. His reading favors space.

Japonism was not a simple decorative taste: it gave Western artists new means of framing, flattening and punctuating the visible world.