La Vague Du Japonisme: The Effects Of Japanese Art On French Art In The Late 19th Century
“It is in general the unexplored that attracts us…” – Lady Murasaki, The Tale of Genji.
(Lambourne 2005, 10).
A preoccupation with “the other” has always been of interest to the French. In Montesquieu’s Lettres Persanes, written in the early 18th century, the French nearly fall over one another in order to gaze upon an Arab traveler in their country. One observer even exclaims,
“ Ah! Ah! Monsieur est Persan! C’est une chose bien extraordinaire! Comment peut-on être Persan!” (Hirch and Thompson 2006, 97).
In the second half of the 19th century after the ports of Japan opened, this is exactly what the primary French artists were exclaiming to themselves about the Japanese, “How can one be Japanese!” and in this quandary, they manifested Japonisme, an interest for things Japanese. Various Japanese artists’ works found their way into the hands and minds of French artists to forever change the course of art history and made a heavy impact upon their art......
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La Vague du Japonisme: The Effects of Japanese Art on French Art in the late 19th Century "It is in general the unexplored that attracts us..." - Lady Murasaki, The Tale of Genji.
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