Michelle Liu - 2022 Mitra Scholar

Page 6

Liu 4 The impressionist artists of the nineteenth-century avant-garde were among the most dedicated new customers of ukiyo-e prints. Tired of the classical artistic tradition touted by the Académie des Beaux Arts and the Salon de Paris, impressionists had begun seeking a new way to approach artwork.5 Discovering ukiyo-e prints provided them with a fresh source of inspiration. Eschewing the stiffness and formality of classical European artworks, Japanese artworks depicted down-to-earth scenes from everyday life with refreshing honesty. Along with other impressionists like close friend Edgar Degas, Cassatt felt drawn to the directness and linear elegance of ukiyo-e. Openly admiring the beauty of Japanese prints, she strove to capture the same stylistic qualities and the humility of daily scenes in her own emulations. 6 However, due to a disconnect with firsthand knowledge of Japan, at the time artists also viewed Japan through a lens shaped largely by European stereotypes. This led to complex misunderstandings as artists continued to seek inspiration from ukiyo-e and fed into the “Japanomania” of the nineteenth-century. Since Japan had been closed off to trade for centuries, lack of knowledge about the country led it to possess a mysterious and “irresistible fascination” in Europe.7 Information disseminated through French newspapers, journals, and exhibitions introduced Japanese objects as “exotic” and “sensual” to audiences.8 While European artists admired the formalist aesthetics of ukiyo-e Japanese woodblock prints, impressionist painter Mary Cassatt’s emulations of ukiyo-e reveal that she perceived Japan through a rigid,

5

Nancy Mowll Mathews, Mary Cassatt. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998) 51.

6

Polyxeni Potter, "Women Caring for Children in 'The Floating World.'" Emerging Infectious Diseases 12, no. 11 (November 2006): 1808. Gale General OneFile. 7

Lionel Lambourne, Japonisme: Cultural Crossings between Japan and the West. (London: Phaidon, 2011) 13. 8

Criss, "Japonisme and beyond,” 38.


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