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Japonisme

In the 1850's-60's the western movement Japonisme had surfaced in Europe because of the fact the Japanese had started to trade with the west again and as a result of them trading an influx of types of objects, techniques, wood blocks, wood block prints, porcelain dolls etc. Japonesque artists used wood blocks in their paintings. In 1862 the World Fair hosted in Europe brought even more attention to Japanese Art. In the 1860's Japanese wood block prints became very popular and were a source of inspiration to many impressionist and post-impressionist artists in the west such as Monet, Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. Western artists were fascinated by the Japaneses decorative arts because it offered a new freedom from imitative or photographic representation, and introduced new angles of vision and an entirely different treatment of perspective.  The aesthetics and characteristics that are noticeable in Japanese art are elongated pictorial formats, asymmetrical compositions, aerial perspective, spaces emptied of all but abstract elements of colour and line, a focus on singularly decorative motifs, cropped close-up partial views of objects in the foreground and the use of bold, unshaded colour. Quite a few well known western painters in that time show characteristics of Japanese art in their paintings such as Van Gogh, Toulouse Lautrec etc. 

Thou Art History: Japonisme. 2013.  [ONLINE] Available at: http://thouarthistory.blogspot.com/2009/03/japonisme.html. [Accessed 21 May 2013].

 British Museum - Japonisme . 2013. British Museum - Japonisme . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/articles/j/japonisme.aspx. [Accessed 21 May 2013].