Japonisme, Japonisme
Conference of Sophie Basch, professor at Sorbonne University, member of the Institut universitaire de France. During this conference, Sophie Basch highlighted the different nuances that allow us to characterize arts inspired by Japan.
Japonisme, the Western movement to embrace Japanese art, experienced its golden age in Paris. While the Anglo-Saxon approach was more immediately scholarly, and therefore more respectful of Japanese hierarchies and aesthetic categories, the history of Japanese art in France became more intertwined with the history of private collections, which were the true crucible of Japonisme before it spread to public collections thanks to the generosity of patron collectors. However, it was not until the acquisition of two Japanese sculptures by the Louvre in 1891, the inauguration of the Cernuschi Museum in 1898, and the Universal Expositions that concluded the 19th century that Japan began to gain a new appreciation for Japanese art. "The era of the trinket, of mercantile curiosity" to open that of "artistic influence" (Edmond Pottier) so that Japanese art may be fully recognized.
Faced with the fascination with Japan among French artists, Michel Melot dismisses the exotic explanation: Japonisme is not Orientalism. We must look to the kinship that French artists discovered with the Japanese to understand what unites Impressionism and Japonisme. "More than a circumstantial coincidence, but a profound link, the explanation for which lies in the situation, at a similar time, of the two civilizations that were unaware of each other."The year 1856 marked the discovery of Japanese prints for artists Félix Bracquemond and Claude Monet, while Baudelaire evoked this new attraction with the term "japonerie" in a letter from Baudelaire to Houssaye dated December 1861: "A long time ago, I received a package of Japanese things that I shared with my friends […] it had a great effect.”.
The word Japanese shop it later reappears in the catalogue of the second Impressionist painters' exhibition to designate a canvas by Monet that we know today under the title The JapaneseAccording to Ségolène Le Men, the work does not succumb to an exotic fad but rather manifests "in a provocative and parodic way all that Japanese prints and the Western fashion of Japonisme bring to modern painting." The idea of Japanese shop is increasingly pejorative and is becoming almost synonymous with Japanese style.
 Claude Monet, The Japanese Woman, Madame Monet in Japanese costume. 1876. Oil on canvas. |
 Pierre Loti. Autumn Japanese Scenes. 1889. |
The first notable occurrence of the term "japonaiserie" dates back to 1867. Upon returning from a failed stay in Trouville, Jules de Goncourt left the collector Philippe Burty and promised to spend "twelve hours of revelry, giving oneself indigestion at the exhibition, to this rallying cry: Japanese-ness forever »The word is modeled on "chinoiserie," a term that was ubiquitous in the 18th century.e century to describe European furniture and objects inspired by Chinese oriental exoticism, even though Goncourt is referring here to Chinese lacquerware, ceramics, and screens, and not to their Western variations. In 1898, Champfleury criticized the fashion for Japonisme, which he interpreted as a final wave of Orientalism: "Just as there were avalanches in 1820 of pifferaro In painting, there were deluges of Greeks and Turks in 1828, Bretons in sufficient numbers around 1840 to populate Brittany, […] today we are all threatened with a Japanese invasion in painting.
In the same text, Champfleury criticizes anecdotal Orientalism, the negative portrayal of Japan, and "Japanese-ness," contrasting it with a more sincere inspiration from Japan that can be called "Japanism." However, it wasn't until 1912 that this latter term appeared in a series of articles. "In praise of Japanese art" written by Philippe Burty. The author doesn't provide a clear definition, but his refutation of "Japonisme, that whim of a jaded dilettante…" serves as one. By revisiting this term, he reveals that the contempt for Far Eastern art, too hastily equated with "Japonisme" (a play on words combining "japonisme" and "chinoiserie"), actually led to a misunderstanding of works inspired by Japanese art without imitation or literal quotation. Works such as The Promenade of the Wet Nurses, carriage frieze by Bonnard or The Heart Vuillard's works are in fact less about Japonisme or Japonisme, which is what Edmond de Goncourt defined as a "Revelation of optics".
 Pierre Bonnard. Promenade of the wet nurses, frieze of the cabs. 1897. Screen made up of a series of four lithographed sheets in five colours. |
 Édouard Vuillard, The Hearth. 1899). Lithograph, color print. |
Sophie Basch and Michael Lucken have published a book on the subject with Hermann publishers.
https://www.editions-hermann.fr/livre/le-neo-japonisme-1945-1975-sophie-basch
Kaltoum LABIB
