Japonisms & Impressionisms

Exhibition 2018 in Giverny France, Museum of Impressionisms

From March 30th through July 15th, 2018

 

Japan opened its boundaries to western countries exactly 150 years ago, in 1868. Young artists rejecting the rules of traditional academic art inspired by the Greek and Roman antiquity were fascinated by the Far East world they discovered on Japanese woodblocks.

Very few people traveled to Japan, but many artists became avid collectors of Japanese prints. They liked the motives inspired by nature or daily life, the vivid colors of the prints, the geishas wearing kimonos... They started painting fans. Japanese artefacts appeared in the setting of their own paintings.

Above all, Japanese art proved inspiring as far as painting rules were concerned. No more symmetry but asymmetry, no illusion of volume but flat surfaces, no perspective any more... 

The exhibition at the musée des Impressionnismes Giverny shows the many ways in which the impressionists and post-impressionists were influenced by japanism. It displays a stunning selection of 120 works by Monet, Manet, Pissarro, Caillebotte, Cassatt, Vallotton, Gauguin, Bonnard, Signac, Denis, Vuillard, van Gogh and by the masters of Japanese woodblocks that were collected by the painters.