Impressionism

Lesson 4: Interpretations of Reality

Japonaisme

During the last half of the 19th century, an influx of wood block prints from Japan arrived in Europe and the influence of it was felt from Vienna to Paris. What especially attracted the artists of the times to the prints they saw was the flattening of the forms and the lack of perspective drawing which gave all objects in the picture equal value.

Color was used to indicate distance. Warm (advancing) tones and cool (receding) tones replaced modeling and the illusion of depth common since the Renaissance. The mania for these Japanese prints was such that they showed up even in the paintings by Edouard Manet and Claude Monet.

Find out what famous writer Manet painted in 1868 with his Japanese prints around him. Note the flattening of all the shapes in this picture, echoed by the prints in the background. Check out http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/man... For more information about Japonaisme, check out pages 34-35 in Impressionist Art - A Crash Course.

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