THE INFLUENCE OF JAPONISME IN CLAUDE MONET’S IMPRESSION, SUNRISE

A thesis submitted to the College of Arts of Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

by

Chelsea N. Cooper

May 2020

Thesis written by

Chelsea Cooper

B.A., Kent State University, 2016

M.A., Kent State University, 2020

Approved by

______Shana Klein, Ph.D., Advisor

______Marie Bukowski, M.F.A., Director, School of Art

______John R Crawford-Spinelli, Ed.D., Dean, College of Arts

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………...... …….…….iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………...... ………vi

CHAPTER I. THE PIONEERING CLAUDE MONET 1 Introduction………………………………………………………………...... ……..1 Monet’s Life and Career Leading to Impression, Sunrise...... 2 Before the Birth of Impression, Sunrise…………………………………....…...... 5

II. ENDING SECLUSION- JAPANESE IMPORTING 10 History of the Trade………………………………………………………...... …….10 Japonisme: A Cultural Exploitation……………..…………………………...... …...12 The Great Masters: Hiroshige, Hokusai, and Utamaro……………………...... …....14 Monet’s Obsession with Japonisme…………………………………………...... ….17 The Prevalent Influence of Ukiyo-e on Nineteenth Century Artists…………...... 21

III. IMPRESSION, SUNRISE: A PAINTING FIT FOR WOODBLOCK 27 The Beginnings of Impressionism...... 27 A Widespread Craze…………...... 29

IV. CONCLUSION 34 The Aftermath of Monet...... 34 Concluding Observations...... 36

REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………...... …….68

iii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

1. Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872…………………………………………...... …39

2. Claude Monet, Rufus Croutinelli, 1859…………………………………………...... ……40

3. Claude Monet, Hunting Trophies, 1862…………………………………………...... …...41

4. Claude Monet, Road in Chailly, 1865…………………………………………...... ……..42

5. Claude Monet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1865....………………………...... 43

6. Claude Monet, La Grenouillère, 1869……………………………………………...... ….44

7. Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Scarlet Sunset, 1830-40...... 45

8. Claude Monet, Regatta in Argenteuil, 1872……………………………………...... ……...46

9. Claude Monet, Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies, 1899…………………………...... 47

10. Utagawa Hiroshige, Precincts of Kameido Tenjin Shrine, 1856…………………...... …48

11. Claude Monet, The Japanese Footbridge, 1920-22……………………………...... …...49

12. Claude Monet, La Japonaise, 1876……………………………………………...... …....…50

13. Claude Monet, The Terrace at Sainte-Adresse, 1867………………………...... ….....…....51

14. Katsushika Hokusai, Sazai Hall at the Temple of the Five Hundred Arhats (Gohyaku Rakanji

Sazaidō) from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, 1820-33………...... 52

15. Katsushika Hokusai, Maisaka, 1804……………………………………………...... …..53

16. James Abbott McNeill Whistler, The Balcony, 1864-1879…………………...... ….54

17. Suzuki Harunobu, Ladies on a Balcony…………………………………………...... ….55

18. James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Gold- Battersea Bridge, 1872-75....56

iv

19. Utagawa Hiroshige, Bamboo Yards, Kyobashi Bridge, No. 76 from One Hundred Famous

Views of Edo, 1857……………………………………………………………...... …….57

20. Edgar Degas, Winding River, 1890…………………………………………...... …...... ……58

21. Utagawa Hiroshige, Asuma Shrine and the Entwined Camphor, 1857…………...... ….59

22. Mary Cassatt, The Letter, 1890-91...... 60

23. Kitagawa Utamaro, Hinazuru of the Keizetsuro, from the series Comparing the Charms of

Beauties, 1789-1800...... 61

24. Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire at the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley, 1882-85……...62

25. Katsushika Hokusai, The Mishima Pass in Kai Province, 1830-32………………...... 63

26. Utagawa Hiroshige, Meisho Edo Hyakkei-Shiba Ura no Fukei, 1856...... 64

27. Utagawa Hiroshige, Mouth of the Aji River in Settsu Province, from the series Wrestling

Matches between Mountains and Seas, 1858...... 65

28. Katsushika Hokusai, Moonlight on the Yodo River, from the series Snow, Moon, and

Flowers, 1833...... 66

29. Kitagawa Utamaro, Girls Gathering Shells on the Seashore, 1790...... 67

v

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to think my fiancé for encouraging me to finish this project and my parents for watching my children so I could work on my research. I’d like to thank my daughters, Serenity and Emma, for giving me the strength and willpower to graduate so I could be an inspiration to them. I’d like to thank my thesis committee for their help in leading me in the right direction and giving me feedback to make a better paper. Lastly, I’d like to thank my thesis advisor, Shana, for giving me direction, helping this thesis come together, and encouraging me to finish and graduate when I didn’t believe I was ever going to do so. Thank you all so much

vi 1

1. The Pioneering Claude Monet

Introduction

It is no secret that artists throughout the ages have looked to previous artistic masters for inspiration in creating their own works. Claude Monet was no exception. While he certainly had his own style that broke away from his predecessors, he was greatly influenced in his career by previous influences abroad, such as “Japonisme,” which had arrived in France in the late 1850s.

This movement included the import of Japanese items, clothing, and woodblock prints throughout Europe and the United States. This inspired a new focus in French artworks and led artists to construct their paintings, photographs, and prints in a manner that resembled Japanese prints from the eighteenth century. Many contemporary artists working in the 1860s followed this trend, including Edgar Degas, Monet, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, and Mary Cassatt, as well as Post-Impressionist painter, Paul Cézanne. In fact, Monet had a collection of two hundred and thirty-one Japanese woodblock prints, among other Japanese items, which are now on display in his home in Giverny, France. It is believed that he began acquiring prints when he went to Holland in 1871.1 However, late in life, Monet claimed that he had purchased his first

Japanese prints in 1856, which is not impossible, however scholar John House states that it is more likely he began purchasing them in the mid-1860s; the late 1890s being the height of his buying.2 These prints influenced the creation of his water lily paintings and paintings of Japanese bridges. How, then, could Impression, Sunrise from 1872 (Figure 1) also have been influenced by the same sources? Many Impressionist scholars have not investigated this theory. Based upon

1 “Giverny: Collection of Japanese Prints of Claude Monet,” Giverny Village, March 18, 2014, accessed March 20, 2020, https://www.giverny.fr/en/information/cultural-information/giverny-collection-of-japanese-prints-of-claude- monet/. 2 John House, Monet: Nature Into Art (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1986), 47. 2 clear stylistic similarities, it is possible to conceive that Monet’s earlier works were influenced by his collection of Japanese prints by Utamaro, Hokusai, and Hiroshige. It is indeed possible that Monet’s inspiration from Japanese prints during the 1860s entered not only his Water Lilies series, but also his earlier, groundbreaking piece Impression, Sunrise, which helped foreground the Impressionist movement during the 1870s.

Monet’s Life and Career Leading to Impression, Sunrise

Claude Monet was born on November 14th, 1840 to his father Claude Adolphe Monet and his mother Louise Justine Aubrée in Paris, France during a time of stability and peace. Years later, the family was forced to move to Le Havre on the coast of Normandy, while Monet was still a young child, as a result of the economic crisis of the mid-forties which left his father’s shop keeping business in ruin. Here, Adolphe joined his brother-in-law, Jacques Lecadre, in his successful wholesale grocery and ship chandlers business so that the family would be more financially stable.3 This was also where Monet learned to love one of his most famously painted subjects, the Seine River, which he and his family would visit while at the summer house of his uncle. His artistic interest came from his mother’s love of the arts, but after her death in 1857, he began to seek guidance from his aunt, Madame Lecadre, who had her own studio where she painted as a hobby and had a connection to Parisian painter Armand Gautier. Monet was welcome to visit her studio whenever he pleased, and he did so as often as possible.4

His love of art, however, did not only materialize from these events, but from drawing caricatures of his schoolteachers in his notebooks. He kept a sketchbook in which he drew

3 Michael J. Call, Claude Monet, Free Thinker: Radical Republicanism, Darwin’s Science, and the Evolution of Impressionist Aesthetics (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2015), 37-38. 4 Karin Sagner-Düchting, Claude Monet: 1840-1926, A Feast for the Eyes (Cologne: Taschen, 1998), 9-10. 3 people, boats, landscapes, and these caricatures. He was known as a caricature artist all throughout Le Havre and was able to charge people of the community between ten and twenty francs per portrait. His works were eventually displayed in the window of Gravier’s, a local stationer and framer, and were commented on by local viewers. He gained a connection with the caricature artist Honoré Daumier, one of his favorite artists at the time who also appeared in local newspapers. Eventually, Monet decided he needed to find a teacher to expand on his caricature work. He began working with Eugène Boudin, who taught him landscape painting. He found a sense of freedom painting under Boudin, who allowed him to paint with pastels and oils.

Boudin had painted in the way that he wished, without the constraints and rules of the official academy, and refused to paint any other way than the unique way he saw the world.5 This way of thinking was the basis for the rest of Monet’s artwork from then on. Monet attributed the fact that he became a painter to Boudin, stating:

“In his infinite kindness, Boudin undertook my instruction. My eyes were slowly opened, and I finally understood nature. I learned at the same time to love it. I analyzed its forms, I studied its colours. Six months later… I announced to my father that I wanted to become a painter and went off to Paris to study art.”6

His father supported him throughout this process and even applied to the city’s municipal council for grant help so that Monet could gather the funds to make his trip. Monet and his father, along with his Aunt Lecadre, agreed that as long as Monet continued working with a proper master and continued painting that they would continue to supplement his monthly income.7 Thus began

Claude Monet’s journey into the world of the fine arts.

In 1859, Monet arrived in Paris and attempted to join Thomas Couture’s atelier but was rejected. Afterwards, he joined the Académie Suisse, which had formerly taught Delacroix,

5 Call, 39, 41. 6 Sagner-Düchting, 11. 7 Call, 42. 4

Bonington, Corot, and Courbet. He was able to continue painting with live models and could draw and paint with freedom and under no supervision. At that time, he was not fond of

Delacroix but found he enjoyed the works of plein air artists, such as Daubigny, Corot, Troyon, and Diaz. His newfound painting life was interrupted in the spring of 1861 when he was drafted into the military and sent to Algeria, where Monet claims that war had made him more mature and serious.8 He also found that the sunny climate gave him impressions of light and color and influenced his future artwork. He was sent back to Le Havre only one year later after having contracted typhoid fever and his aunt was able to pay for a replacement for him so he could stay out of the military. During this time, he was introduced to the Dutch painter Johan Barthold

Jongkind, who Monet attributes as being his ‘true teacher’ because of his use of contemporary scenes that concentrated on landscapes, beaches, and vacationers. Monet found these leisurely scenes compelling.9

By the end of the 1860s he was painting with Auguste Renior and Camille Pissaro in

Bougival and Louveciennes, and mostly in La Grenouillère with Pissaro. These artists met with writers such as Émile Zola and Zacharie Astruc at Café Guerbois in the Grande Rue des

Batignolles. Monet, however, wanted to paint directly from nature in his landscape work and did not feel that discussing Parisian life in a café with Zola and Astruc would benefit his career, so he stopped attending. He wrote to his friend Bazille, “One is too preoccupied with what one sees and hears in Paris, however strong-minded one is, and what I shall do here will at least have the merit of being unlike anyone else, at least I think so, because it will simply be the expression of my own personal experiences.”10

8 Call, 42. 9 Call, 42-43. 10 House, Monet: Nature Into Art, 7. 5

During the late 1860s, Monet abandoned painting objects with precise details and only painted with a focus on the atmospheric interplay of light and shadow in his works. He attempted to submit a few of his paintings with his newfound style to the Salon of 1870, but they were met with criticism and rejected, much to his disappointment. Shortly after, Monet married Camille on

June 28, 1870, and soon moved to Trouville on the Normandy coast to avoid being called back to war. In October, he decided to take refuge in the English capital. He gave up painting large-scale portraiture and devoted himself to only landscape painting. While in London, he painted a variety of landscape paintings of the Houses of Parliament and was exposed to other artists. He also traveled to Holland, where he was impacted by Dutch artists and their faithful portrayal of nature. He found that they also used light and color to portray their outdoor paintings, and he was able to relate to them and create works of the landscape in and around Holland. In 1872, Monet returned to Le Havre and painted Impression, Sunrise.11

This sequence of events was significant in shaping Monet’s career path and artistic style.

Without the many encounters he made throughout his life, it is doubtful that he would have settled upon an impressionistic painting style, let alone create a painting that lent its name to the

Impressionist movement. To truly understand Monet’s career, we must analyze his painting style, starting with his first known works.

Before the Birth of Impression, Sunrise

As previously noted, Monet began his love of art through caricature work. One such work was Rufus Croutinelli (Figure 2) from 1859, drawn when he was only nineteen years of age. Just in his sketch he shows fantastic detail in the clothing and in the face of the individual, even with

11 Sagner-Düchting, 46-57. 6 the cartoonist approach. From these caricatures, he began working outside of the studio, as represented in the painting Hunting Trophies (Figure 3) from 1862. This was painted after he met

Boudin and returned from the military after his short one-year stay. This time was also when he became associated with Alfred Sisley, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Frédéric Bazille, who were to become other famous Impressionists.12 We see his painting style beginning to emerge in this painting, with quick and noticeable brushstrokes. However, the work overall still consists of meticulous detail and looks like a naturalistic image. It is no surprise that his paintings started out looking naturalistic, as he spent time with Realist painters like Courbet. The layering of the birds and the shadows on the wall create spatial depth and allow the table they are laying on to appear as such with a naturalistic portrayal.

In 1865, Monet began his journey into playing with the effects of atmospheric light through color variation in pictures. This is when he created Road in Chailly (Figure 4). He painted two different versions of this scene during two different seasons, trying to capture the effects of the seasonal change on the landscape.13 We see that his brushstrokes have become smaller and broken up, especially in the detailing of the trees in the background of the image and in the leaves on the ground in the foreground. He has begun to depart from a naturalistic portrayal in order to capture the desired amount of lighting and color that he wanted to achieve. We see a variety of greens, yellows, and browns that make up the grass and the fallen leaves as well as reds and greens in the still intact leaves.

During this same time, he became interested in figure painting. At the Salon des Refusés, or

“exhibition for rejects,” Monet viewed Édouard Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’Herbe, and created his own version of it in 1865, Luncheon on the Grass (Figure 5). During this time, he also became

12 Birgit Zeidler, Claude Monet: Life and Work (New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2000), 13. 13 Zeidler, 22. 7 fascinated with Japanese colored prints. He added life-sized figures in the middle of their movements, forming a real ‘impression’ of time. He also stayed with his focus on light and the way it plays through the leaves and lands on the figures.14 The figures closer to the trunk of the tree appear to be darker in color, implying that they stand in shadow. The figures towards the edges of the trees are highlighted with lighter colors to imply that the sun is shining through the leaves. This creates a contrast of colors within the image. While his setting is naturalistic, the way he paints the leaves and the fabric of the clothing on the figures is more abstract. Their faces have details, but sparingly so, especially the figures in the background of the image. They appear to be mere smudges instead of actual identifying features, but this could also be due to the fact that Monet had abandoned finishing this painting in favor of painting his wife.15 We can also observe the faster brushstrokes of his emerging in this image.

During his move to Saint-Michel, near Bougival, as stated previously, Monet began painting various scenes at La Grenouillère, a common leisure spot for visitors from Paris. The

“Flowerpot”- a popular spot in the area and the subject of some of his paintings here- consisted of a tiny island with one single tree on it. La Grenouillère was one of many popular places to the west of Paris where people would meet to get away from the city and relax. By painting scenes of modern life, Monet pulled away from the strict conventions of history painting in Paris at the time, following other artists such as Manet and Courbet. These paintings showed contemporary society in a relaxed mood, which was a new style of painting that was beginning to emerge due to works such as Manet’s Music in the Tuileries from 1862. Monet was working against the strict rules of the Academy, which encouraged structured scenes of history or mythological events

14 Zeidler, 26. 15 Ronald Pickvance, The Burlington Magazine 118, no. 877 (1976): 240, accessed March 17, 2020, www.jstor.org/stable/878391. 8 with linear perspective. Monet painted La Grenouillère (Figure 6) in 1869 and captured the excitement of society getting away from their stresses and relaxing together through his newly acquired use of light effects, similar to Music in the Tuileries. His quick brushstrokes created an impression of what was happening that day at the Flowerpot, with the gathering of Parisians.

Monet focuses his attention on color emphasis for the reflections in the water, as water is a literal translation of a true impression and is never the same as it ebbs and flows.16 This painting focuses even less on the details of figures and more on the play of light. The figures have little to no detail, and the trees in the background are nothing but big dabs of paint quickly brushed on the canvas. Even the bathers in the water can hardly be distinguished from the water itself.

After his escape to London and the threat of being drafted into the military for the looming

Franco Prussian War, he had the chance to visit local galleries and study the works of John

Constable and the watercolors of Joseph Mallord William Turner. He opposed the fact that the

British were not interested in French paintings and he did not socialize with anyone except a few countrymen who had also fled to London.17 He encountered Turner’s The Scarlet Sunset (Figure

7), which was said to have inspired him to paint Impression, Sunrise.18 At the end of May 1871,

Monet moved back to Paris, after a peace treaty was signed, to be with his family after the death of his father. 19

Monet moved to Argenteuil and painted Regatta in Argenteuil (Figure 8) in 1872, which was done the same year as Impression, Sunrise. He was not only focused on his usual light effects and colors, but also on painting in an idealized way, rather than a naturalistic one as he had done in earlier works. By that time, the Seine River was heavily polluted in Paris and referred to as a

16 Zeidler, 30. 17 Zeidler, 32. 18 See Katherine A. Lochnan, Turner, Whistler, Monet, (UK: Gardner Books, 2004). 19 Zeidler, 33. 9

‘sewer’ of a river because of the grotesque amount of trash floating on the surface.20 However, in this image we see the quiet and calm river painted in a beautiful blue color, completely disregarding any sort of pollution that may have made its way into Argenteuil.21 He turned the

Seine into something positive to behold. He also had a studio boat made for him that year, on which he would row out into the water and paint. This gives the viewer a unique perspective that could only be achieved from sitting in the river as opposed to on the banks. It also gives us a taste of Monet’s personal experience being in the middle of the river and able to paint on his easel.22 In this painting, we see that the thick brushes of paint in the water are not an exact reflection of the buildings above on the bank. They are extremely abstract and almost consist of no specific shape. Even the reflections of the boats are abstracted and free. The only thing separating the horizon from the water are the boats and the bank with houses. His emphasis is strictly on color contrasts and light reflections.

So, how does all this tie into Japonisme? To understand the connection, we must first understand what Japonisme really is, where it came from, and the other artists--- such as Degas,

Cassatt, Whistler, and Cézanne--- who participated in incorporating Japanese influence into their works. It is also necessary to look at the original Japanese prints from which these artists drew their inspiration and to analyze the specific qualities that they share.

20 Zeilder, 40. 21 For further reading on pollution see Royal Society of Arts (Great Britain), “Irrigation with Street Sewage,” in Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 22 (London: George Bell and Sons, December 1873): 67-74. 22 Zeilder, 40. 10

2. Ending Seclusion: Japanese Importing

History of the Trade

The history of trade with the West and Japan is an extensive one but was stifled beginning in

1597. The evangelization of the Christian faith by sixteenth and seventeenth century European traders and colonizers had a profound effect on the relationship between Japan and the European powers. The Japanese nation did not want to change their faith from Buddhism or Shintoism to

Christianity under pressures from European influences, but sixteenth century Jesuits continued to push their expansion of Christianity in Japan which threatened to disrupt the country’s social structure. This led to an outburst of persecution by Europeans against the Japanese and led to the martyrdom of twenty-six European Christians at Nagasaki in 1597. In 1614, an order was created that expelled Jesuits. This followed with the expulsion of the Spaniards in 1624 and the

Portuguese in 1639.23 The seclusion began because the Jesuits misused the arrangements set in the trade pact and inspired Japan to close the ports to trade.24 This officially put an end to

American and European trade and contact with Japan; however, the Dutch were allowed to continue trade from an artificial island called Dejima created in 1641. Trade was still desirable in

Japan, so the island was created by using rocks from flattening a hill in the bay of Nagasaki. This allowed European imports into Japan from a more comfortable distance and influenced the use of

Western vanishing-point perspective in Japanese prints until its abolishment in 1854.25

Though ostensibly trade was closed off between Europe and Japan, Europeans were still able to acquire Japanese goods through the Dutch trade. In 1788, Sir Joseph Banks acquired a copy of

23 Lionel Lambourne, Japonisme: Cultural Crossing between Japan and the West (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2005), 11. 24 Gabriel P. Weisburg, Phillip Dennis Cate, Gerald Needham, et al., Japonisme: Japanese Influence on French Art 1854-1910 (Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1975), xi. 25 Lambourne, 13-14. 11

Ehon Mushi Erabi (Picture-book of Selected Insects) by Kitagawa Utamaro and brought it back to England. It now resides in the British Museum.26 The Japanese were eager to have contact with Americans and Europeans but were unable to pursue this under the rule of the shoguns.

After protests, European ships that were in distress were allowed to take refuge in their ports for fuel and water. In 1839, American Commodore James Biddle attempted to negotiate a treaty to resume trade with Japan but was denied. This led to tension between America and Russia (who were at odds) to see who could open trade with Japan first. In July of 1853, American

Commodore Matthew Perry arrived with six hundred U.S. Navy men. In February of 1854, Perry returned with two thousand men and the Japanese shogunate decided to back down their defenses and allow strict trading treaties, limited to trade from Nagaskai, Hakodate, and Shimoda. Before the beginning of 1860, treaties were signed with Great Britain, France, Russia, and the

Netherlands. In 1859, the first British citizens arrived and settled in Nagasaki, Hakodate, and

Yokohama.27 This led to Japanese goods being exported to France and increased artistic exposure to Japanese culture, which is evident in their paintings. The opening up of trade routes launched the Western cultural phenomenon of Japonisme. Following Perry’s visit, objects were continually exported to the West, which inspired many European artists interested in Japanese culture, history, and art. Japanese objects such as fans, illustrated books, prints, and ceramics became prized possessions and were fought over by Europeans aiming to obtain everything new from a country considered “exotic.”28 Even though trade was forced in the beginning, eventually the Japanese welcomed trade with Europe. France, in particular, was a supporter of Japan during the Meiji era (1868-1912), when they displayed major and minor exhibitions of Japanese art,

26 Lambourne, 18. 27 Lambourne, 24-5. 28 Weisburg, Cate, Needham, et al, ix. 12 providing an ideal opportunity for Japan’s marketing of their export lines. The competitive nature of other European countries led them to produce goods destined for sale in Japan, leading the empire to change rapidly and boosting Japan into their Victorian age.29

Japonisme: A Cultural Exploitation

Japonisme was a term coined by an influential art critic Phillippe Burty in 1872.30 It was used in reference to the influence of Japan on France from 1854 to 1910 and refers to “the study of the art and genius of Japan” according to Burty.31 Artists that used this technique embraced all aspects of Japanese art and culture and they soon began to use all Japanese concepts. The influence of Japanese imports peaked in the 1860s, when various objects were shown at one of the world fairs, the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris. The Exposition displayed Japanese lacquers, bronzes, ceramics, fans, and other objects, including Japanese prints that were collected by artists and art critics who found them in Parisian shops.32

Art Historian Klaus Berger describes Japonisme as “a sudden visual influx of completely new and original form, prompting the recognition, admiration, adoption, and reinterpretation of an

Eastern way of seeing.”33 The first Japanese woodblock prints began to arrive in Paris in 1862, starting the fad with great enthusiasm by French artists. At the same time, Impressionism was becoming its own movement (but was not yet established), and Japanese prints influenced much of the artists’ work. The Japanese prints by artists such as Hiroshige, Hokusai, and Utamaro, are

29 Lambourne, 27. 30 Gabriel P. Weisburg, "Aspects of Japonisme," The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, no. 4 (1975): 120, accessed April 6, 2019, www.jstor.org/stable/25152585. 31 Weisburg, 120. 32 Weisburg, 120. 33 Jan Hokenson, "Proust's "japonisme": Contrastive Aesthetics," Modern Language Studies 29, no. 1 (1999): 18, accessed April 6, 2019, doi:10.2307/3195357. 13 characterized by their “discordant compositions, brilliant red and yellow colors, simple stylized figures, odd cropping and silhouetting, the indifference to frame, the decentered perspective, and the bold overlays and transparences,” says scholar Hokeson.34 These many aspects can be seen in a variety of French artists’ work from the time, whether it be one or multiple concepts in a piece of artwork. Monet was an exceptional example of this.

Monet’s work was based upon not just a single image or specific Japanese artwork, but focused on the entire aesthetic of Japanese art. He makes this connection explicit to art critic

Roger Marx in 1907 stating,

“If you insist on forcing me into an affiliation with anyone else for the good of the cause, then compare me with the old Japanese masters; their exquisite taste has always delighted me, and I like the suggestive quality of their aesthetic, which evokes presence by a shadow and the whole by a part… The vague and indeterminate are expressive resources that have a raison d’être and qualities of their own; through them, the sensation is prolonged, and they form the symbol of continuity.”35

This is proof that Monet based certain aspects of his aesthetic on these prints after they were brought to Paris. Monet did not base his paintings from a single Japanese print, but he chose to use a combination of various prints to create one work. While with certain artists we can see which prints their paintings were based upon, Monet was not to be figured out so easily. This grounds my argument and speculation that Impression, Sunrise was also influenced by Japanese prints. Some scholars do not recognize the Japanese traits in this painting; author William Seitz believes that Impression, Sunrise is closer to European works by Whistler, Jongkind, or Turner’s watercolor because it is looser and more open. He likens the image to Whistler’s Nocturne in

Blue and Gold- Old Battersea Bridge, but does so only because of its abstracted form, not because it resembles Japanese prints, as Whistler’s painting does. He claims that the painting

34 Hokenson, 18. 35 Klaus Berger, Japonismus in der westlichen Malerei: 1860-1920 (Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1980) 312, translated by David Britt, Japonisme in Western Painting From Whistler to Mattisse (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992), quoted in Hokenson, 24. 14 could not resemble a print.36 However, if we take what was previously stated, that Monet drew inspiration from multiple prints and not a single one, it seems very likely that Impression,

Sunrise was also inspired by multiple Japanese prints. In order to establish this assertion, we must look at the Japanese prints that may have influenced the works of Monet and others and analyze their stylistic characteristics and compare them to Impressionist creations. This investigation includes the works of Utagawa Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai, and Kitagawa

Utamaro.

The Great Masters: Hiroshige, Hokusai, and Utamaro

To understand the concept of Japanese prints, we must look at the definition of ukiyo-e artwork. Literally translating to “pictures of the floating world,” ukiyo-e described woodblock prints, some depicting what was considered a self-indulgent and sensual life, and some depicting scenes from the natural world in the Edo period of Japan. In the beginnings of ukiyo-e prints, they were used for advertising theater performances and wrestling. They consisted of portraits of beautiful women and popular actors from Japan’s pleasure quarters. Ukiyo-e prints were also used to depict the spirit of nature and landscapes, which were popular as home décor among the

Japanese middle class. The merchant class lifestyle typically influenced the prints’ subject matter. The prints were presented in books for education, advice manuscripts, art books, novels, and play scripts.37 Ukiyo-e prints were known for their different perspective. During the Italian

Renaissance, Western linear perspective was remade to reduce three-dimensional space into a two-dimensional space by geometrical means. In Japan, this technique was reinterpreted and

36 William Seitz, "Monet and Abstract Painting," College Art Journal 16, no. 1 (1956): 36, accessed January 31, 2019, doi:10.2307/772846. 37 Frederick Harris, Ukiyo-e, (Japan: Tuttle Publishing, 2012), 14. 15 transformed by exaggerating the effects of objects near and far. The Japanese printmakers used linear perspective as a design and edited it to where there was no apparent frame. Ironically, the

Japanese technique which drew Europeans to prints was actually a result of European influence on Japanese artists, such as Hokusai. The frameless quality of the prints strayed from the principle of linear perspective, leaving a skewed one which influenced Impressionist artists.38

Utagawa Hiroshige, born Ando Tokutaro, was born in 1797 to a warden of the fire brigade.

He eventually became a fireman, but also loved to sketch. When he was fourteen, he joined the

Utagawa painting school and studied under Utagawa Toyohiro, a famous Japanese ukiyo-e artist.

The following year he obtained a school license in painting and became known as Utagawa

Hiroshige. He began publishing works in 1818 that consisted mostly of prints of beautiful women and actors; however, he began to create prints of landscapes in the 1830s after being influenced by Hokusai. Hiroshige is most famously known for his works during and after this time. He died in 1858 of cholera.39 Hokusai’s influence on Hiroshige led to his creation of beautiful ukiyo-e prints.

The second Japanese print artist of interest in this discussion is the aforementioned

Katsushika Hokusai, who was born in 1760 in the provincial district of Katsushika. He became interested in drawing while he was a small child after being an assistant bookseller in Edo. He apprenticed with a woodcutter in 1774 and the following year he illustrated the last six pages of a novel under the name Tetsuzō. In 1778, he became a painter after abandoning his career as a woodcutter. At the age of eighteen, he entered the Katsukawa Shunshō and took on the name

Katsukawa Shunrō. While there, he painted theatre sets and actors. In 1789, he was forced to

38 Shigemi Inaga, "The Making of Hokusai's Reputation in the Context of Japonisme," Japan Review, no. 15 (2003): 83-84, accessed March 21, 2020, www.jstor.org/stable/25791270. 39Mikhail Uspensky, Hiroshige, (United Kingdom: Parkstone International, 2014), Biography, accessed January 19, 2020, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hiroshige/SQb3AAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0. 16 leave his studio after another student tore down a painting he did for a shop owner. The student thought that it was a bad painting and tore it down to save the honor of the studio. He began to work independently under a new name ‘Mugura’ and rarely stayed in one place for long, living a vagabond life. After this event, he was exiled to Uraga for four years, had apoplexy, and fell ill in 1849 in his ninety-third home in Asakusa. He died at the age of ninety after living a vagabond life moving from one place to the next. He created over thirty thousand drawings and paintings over the course of his life and is considered, to some, the founder of ukiyo-e. Hokusai created prints of men, women, birds, fish, tree, flowers, and sprigs of herbs, along with a variety of landscapes.40

Kitagawa Utamaro is the third artist of interest that may have significantly impacted Monet’s work. Originally Ichitarō Kitagawa, he was born around 1753 in Kawagoe in the province of

Musashi. When he began working independently, he abandoned all of his previous names and took on the name Utamaro. He became the pupil of Toriyama Sekien, who taught him how to paint in the ukiyo-e style and began creating prints of beautiful women and of erotic subjects that would eventually make him famous. Utamaro refused to paint actors as Hiroshige and Hokusai did, and instead drew elegant women in imaginary scenes. Afterwards, he moved on to paint women that were part of the pleasure districts in Edo. Later, he added caricatures of men next to the women he painted. At one point, Utamaro was arrested and imprisoned for breaking the laws of censure and was eventually released but died shortly after in Edo in 1806. He was considered a top ukiyo-e printmaker.41

40 Edmond de Goncourt, Hokusai, (Russia: Parkstone International, 2014) 1. Life of Hokusai, accessed January 19, 2020, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hokusai/JsujAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0. 41 Edmond de Goncourt, Utamaro, (United Kingdom: Parkstone International, 2015), I. The Art of Utamaro, accessed January 19, 2020, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Utamaro/c26lCgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0. 17

These artists inspired art movements in Japan as well as the rise of Japonisme in France. They influenced many artists to create works that included Japanese dress styles (the kimono and fan) and Japanese woodblock printing techniques (flatness, twisted perspective, cropping, hard angles, etc.). Monet, Whistler, Degas, Cézanne, and Cassatt embraced the ukiyo-e style and used it to create their own masterpieces.

Monet’s Obsession with Japonisme

It is important to look at paintings by Monet before and after Impression, Sunrise and compare them to the Japanese prints by the aforementioned artists because this line of thinking demonstrates how it is possible that Monet utilized the Japanese techniques in many of the paintings during and after the height of Japonisme. First, paintings with known influence will be discussed, then earlier paintings with Japanese influences less recognized by scholars will be addressed.

In the 1890s Monet began making series, or multiple paintings of the same subjects during different times of the day. One such series was his Japanese bridge series, including Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies (Figure 9), which was created in 1899 and inspired by Japanese cultural gardens. In late 1890, Monet had purchased his estate in Giverny and built himself a garden influenced by Japanese horticultural traditions. When he was able to afford it, he purchased extra land and built on it a pond with a Japanese style bridge going over the water. He filled the pond with water lilies, and covered the surrounding area in bamboo bushes, cherry trees, and gingko trees. This further proved his love for Japanese landscape imagery.42 Bridge over a Pond of

Water Lilies shows this Japanese scene that he had built for himself. In the center at the bottom

42 Zeidler, 80. 18 of the image are water lilies painted as they float in the water. Above them is the bridge, and at the top of the canvas are the trees. The bridge does not seem to fit with the perspective of the rest of the painting and appears slightly tilted towards the back of the canvas; it is not flat and steady.

For comparison, we can look at Hiroshige’s Precincts of the Tenjin Shrine in Kameido (Figure

10), which Monet owned.43 This print shows an exaggerated bridge with a tree to the right and a frame with wisteria blossoms on the left. In the background, under the bridge, people sit and view the pond.44 It is obvious that Monet could have been influenced by this print if he came across it because the bridge in the print has the same skewed perspective, however, the water does not appear in one-point perspective. The birds in the front are so flat in space that it is hard to tell if they are flying or floating in the water, and the tree looks like it is pressed against the bridge. To add to this argument, we can also see Japanese influences in Monet’s later painting of the same scene, The Japanese Footbridge (Figure 11), which was painted toward the end of his life in 1920-22. At that time, he was nearly blind, which is why the painting might be even flatter than his normal works.45 Here, Monet is taking flatness to a new level. It is difficult to tell what is going on in the scene at all, and we can only tell the bridge exists in the center. The water lilies are virtually impossible to see, and the trees in the background have just become blotches of color. Overall, it is obvious to even an untrained eye that Monet was influenced by a variety of

Japanese landscape prints from the great masters.

Monet mostly painted his wife, Camille, during his later years, in portraits which were also influenced by Japonisme. His portrait La Japonaise (Figure 12) shows Camille painted in a decorated kimono with Japanese decorative fans (uchiwa), which they had owned, adorning the

43 Lambourne, 194. 44 Utagawa Hiroshige: Precincts of the Tenjin Shrine in Kameido, Indianapolis Museum of Art Online Collection, accessed January 16, 2020, http://collection.imamuseum.org/artwork/17954/. 45 Zeidler, 88. 19 studio wall behind her. She holds another fan colored with the blue, white, and red of the French flag in her hands and gazes at the viewer. Her dress appears three-dimensional in the middle where the samurai is situated, and his sword looks like it is coming out of her dress. Fans also litter the floor around her. She wears a blonde wig as well. Instead of being depicted with her normal dark colored hair, she is shown with a blonde wig, adding emphasis to her European identity.46 This painting was not inspired by specific Japanese prints, but by Japonisme in general. Monet had already been exposed to multiple types of Japanese prints by this time. It can be said that Monet painted this to appeal to the masses during the height of Japonisme because he needed the money. He did indeed sell the painting for two thousand francs and later referred to it as “rubbish” because he had given into the Parisian fad of Japonisme and sold out on the painting.47 This painting was the subject of controversy during a recent exhibition at the Boston

Museum of Fine arts in 2015 because of the fact that Monet took advantage of Japonisme to acquire money, which is discussed later in this thesis.

In 1867, Monet painted The Terrace at Sainte-Adresse (Figure 13), a work done in his early career, four years before Impression, Sunrise. This scene is a colorful garden with red and yellow flowers, gated in and separated from the body of water that it overlooks. In the background are a plethora of boats. Two people sit in the foreground and two people stand in the middle ground.

Author Birgit Zeidler describes this painting, writing, “With its decentralized, strictly structured composition (in which foreground, center ground, and background planes are not recessed into each other but appear staggered) and glowing colors, the picture is visibly inspired by Japanese color prints, which had become fashionable in the late 1860s.”48 The horizon line is made quite

46 Michelle Liu Carriger, “No ‘Thing to Wear’: A Brief History of Kimono and Inappropriation from Japonisme to Kimono Protests,” Theatre Research International 43, no. 2 (2018): 165, doi:10.1017/S0307883318000287. 47 Christopher Heinrich, Monet (Cologne, Germany: Taschen, 2000), 42. 48 Zeidler, 29. 20 clear here, with a white, cloudy sky clashing with the deep blue water, and the water separated by the fencing of the terrace. This painting can be compared to Hokusai’s Sazai Hall at the

Temple of the Five Hundred Arhats (Gohyaku Rakanji Sazaidō), from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Figure 14) from 1830-33. Monet owned a copy of this print that was noted to be damaged, suggesting it may have been one of the earliest prints that he acquired--- in this case, by the time he painted Terrace at Sainte-Adresse.49 Here, as in Monet’s painting, the different grounds are staggered. The terrace is in the foreground with the depiction of figures, while the water is in the middle ground, and the landscape and mountain are in the background. Even though this seems natural, the space is still flat because there is a higher perspective-point.

Monet’s painting presents a higher perspective in the same manner. The water and boats remain flat. Monet himself refers to this painting as his, “Chinese painting with flags in it,” during a time when Chinese and Japanese were interchangeable words, indicating he deliberately incorporated

Japanese elements into the composition.50

Another early Monet painting already discussed in this paper is Regatta in Argenteuil from the year 1872 (Figure 8). One can assert that this image, painted in the same year as Impression,

Sunrise, also has Japanese influences present. French journalist Théodore Duret states in 1880 that Monet was the pioneer of using Japanese print inspired colors and may have had them in mind when painting Regatta at Argenteuil, which was painted in bold slabs of unmodulated color.51 The horizon line is very low, almost to the point of not existing. If the houses on the hill were not present, it would be difficult to distinguish where the sky starts and the water ends. The scene is, again, flattened in space. The sails look as if they are not even attached to the boats

49 House, Monet: Nature Into Art, 51. 50 House, Monet: Nature Into Art, 47. 51 House, Monet: Nature Into Art, 112. 21 themselves, giving the viewer an uneasy perspective. Regatta in Argenteuil can be compared to

Hokusai’s Maisaka (Figure 15) from 1804. Again, we see that Hokusai’s colors are duller than

Monet’s bright palette. However, the sails on both of Hokusai’s boats have an off-kilter perspective in that the boats face the back left middle ground, but the sails face the middle of the canvas. In Monet’s painting, the sails are more accurate. The horizon is much like Monet’s later painting as well, hardly distinguishable from the sky except for the mountains in the distance, a typical characteristic of Japanese prints. Because of these, it is not a far stretch to believe that other works from the same year by Monet were also inspired by Japanese prints much like this one.

Monet enjoyed viewing these prints and using the Japanese culture he was learning about in

France. At this time, Japanese culture was widely accepted as something new and interesting and flourished throughout Paris because of the forced opening of the ports in Japan and the massive amount of trade goods being exported. This brought a new perspective to other nineteenth century artists as well.

The Prevalent Influence of Ukiyo-e on Nineteenth Century Artists

As important as it is to look at the impact of Japonisme on Monet, it is important to look at artists who were working around him who were also impacted because Monet was not creating art in a vacuum. Other Euro-American artists were studying Japanese print techniques and using them in their art as well. Looking at other artists from the same period highlights his creativity in a time where Japanese prints were available in shops around Paris due to the forced opening of trade in Japan. 22

For example, Euro-American artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler likely encountered ukiyo- e prints in 1862 or 1863. This is documented by his regular presence at a shop in Paris called

‘Porte Chinoise,’ which sold “Oriental” goods. Consequently, Japanese influence remained a staple in his works from then on.52 It is argued by Léonce Bénédite that Whistler may have come across a volume of Hokusai prints in Paris much earlier in 1856, which could change the theory that Japanese prints were not known in Paris until early 1860.53

In 1864-79, Whistler paints The Balcony (Figure 16), which shows four women on a balcony overlooking the Chelsea River. These women are adorned in Japanese robes and accessories.

One holds a fan and has a tea service tray in front of her. A Japanese instrument, called the samisen, is being played by the woman next to her. This painting can be compared to a Japanese print by an artist named Harunobu called Ladies on a Balcony (Figure 17). Harunobu is not a discussed artist in this text, but it is important to note that Whistler borrows his techniques.

Whistler employs the same techniques found within this work by showing the same type of scene- a balcony floor, railing, and screen. The composition of the figures is also the same, two sitting and one standing, but Whistler adds a fourth figure. The standing figures create a strong vertical contrast to the horizontal lines of the railing. Using Japanese print techniques, Whistler also makes the figures appear flat and not bound to any spatial constraints. The figures only exist in a two-dimensional space as opposed to a three-dimensional state. Harunobu’s composition ignores naturalistic spatial and perspectival qualities, a result of new Japanese print techniques which rejected a frame of perspective. In fact, the tree appears to be pressed against the balcony

52 John Sandberg, “‘Japonisme’ and Whistler,” The Burlington Magazine 106, no. 740 (1964): 500, accessed April 6, 2019, www.jstor.org/stable/874429. 53 Léonce Bénédite, “Whistler,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 3, 34 (August 1904): 142, cited in John Sandberg, “’Japonisme” and Whistler,” The Burlington Magazine 106, no. 740 (1964): 500-503, accessed April 6, 2019, www.jstor.org/stable/874429. 23 railings instead of being in a three-dimensional background of the image. If not for the tea serving tray in both images, there would hardly be any sense of a ground. Even the flowers in

Whistler’s composition would appear to be floating if not for the tray. Whistler uses many techniques in this painting but takes his interest in Japanese prints further when he goes on to paint Nocturne: Blue and Gold- Old Battersea Bridge (Figure 18).54

Nocturne: Blue and Gold- Old Battersea Bridge, painted in 1872-75, was Whistler’s attempt at showing the beauty and tranquility of the river Thames during moonlight. Whistler sat beneath the bridge and painted just one of the wooden piles that supported the bridge. A man stands with a ghostly boat in the foreground. He uses a small amount of gold to define the lights and the exploding firework on the right side of the image. This painting is a well-documented influence of Japanese prints on Western art, and was likely inspired by Hiroshige’s, Bamboo Yards,

Kyobashi Bridge, No. 76 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Figure 19), done in 1857.55

Hiroshige was inspired by the Tokyo waterways, and he monumentalized their bridges with exaggerated perspectives and dramatic close-ups.56 Hiroshige’s print seems flat, but also gives an illusion of space because of the line of bamboo trees getting smaller. The figures are flat and look like they are blended in with the bridge. In Whistler’s painting, the angle is different than in

Hiroshige’s print. The viewer is looking up at the bridge instead of directly at it yet looking at the boat and the cityscape directly. The figures on the bridge are flat and devoid of any facial or bodily characteristics, while in Hiroshige’s print, they have clothing. Whistler’s painting reads flatter than Hiroshige’s print as well. It appears that the only spatial component is the boat in the

54 Sandburg, 504. 55 Wendy Baron, "Whistler and the Thames: London, Andover and Washington," The Burlington Magazine 156, no. 1331 (2014): 124, accessed March 17, 2020, www.jstor.org/stable/24241208. 56 Julia Meech-Pekarik, “Early Collectors of Japanese Prints and The Metropolitan museum of Art,” Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 17 (1984) 93, accessed March 15. 2020, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1512790. 24 foreground that appears to be receding back into space. However, the exaggerated bridge, the small cityscape in the background, and the changes in the color of the water are also to be considered. The dim, dark colors help to allude to the flatness of the scene. The shore blends into the water, the water blends into the city, and the bridge blends into the sky in a harmonious balance.

Edgar Degas was another artist that employed Japanese print techniques. He was fond of

Hiroshige’s works and owned around forty prints by the artist. Scholar Tom Rassieur asserts that

Degas’ work Winding River, 1890 (Figure 20) resembles a print by Hiroshige called Asuma

Shrine and the Entwined Camphor (Figure 21) done in 1857. When first looking at the images side by side, they do not appear to share anything in common. But Rassieur asserts that when

Degas work is reversed, the images are identical. The winding of the river corresponds with

Hiroshige’s river scene. The colors of both are similar, using green, pink, black, yellow and brown along with a similar way of portraying the gradation of colors. The sunsets are similar in color and they both show springtime as the subject matter. When looking closely at the sky in

Hiroshige’s print there are vertical lines that echo the grain of the woodblock. Degas uses the same vertical lines in his sky, leading Rassieur to believe that Degas was referencing this specific image when he created Winding River.57

Mary Cassatt, another Impressionist, was introduced to Japanese prints by Degas. She looked at Utamaro’s prints of women and was inspired to create images of mothers and their children and of women bathing.58 In particular, Cassatt’s The Letter ( Figure 22) done in 1891 is reminiscent of Utamaro’s Hinazuru of the Keizetsuro (Figure 23), from the series Comparing the

57 Tom Rassieur, "Degas and Hiroshige," Print Quarterly 28, no. 4 (2011): 429-31, accessed October 31, 2019, www.jstor.org/stable/43826174. 58Amir Lowell Abou-Jaoude, "A Pure Invention: Japan, Impressionism, and the West, 1853-1906," The History Teacher 50, no. 1 (2016): 61, accessed March 17, 2020, www.jstor.org/stable/44504454. 25

Charms of Beauties done between 1789 and 1800.59 In The Letter, Cassatt transplanted the image of the Japanese face of a prostitute with a woman licking a letter.60 The woman sits at a table which has a morphing perspective from front to back, much like in Japanese prints. She looks down at the table while sitting in her chair. Cassatt’s color palette in this print, blue, mauve, and green in faded tones, was inspired by late eighteenth-century prints that had been exposed to time, were discolored, and had faded. Utamaro’s Hinazuru of the Keizetsuro is similar in that the woman looks down, but the focus is on her portrait, so we do not see what she is looking at. She holds a towel in her mouth, as opposed to licking an envelope. Cassatt gives her woman a modest hairstyle, while Utamaro’s courtesan has an updo with many picks in it, a common hairstyle among courtesans in Japan. Both women are displayed with printed fabric clothing. The influence is quite apparent; it is especially plausible that Cassatt borrowed from this Japanese artist since she viewed an exhibition of Japanese prints at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts held from

April 25 to May 22 of 1890 with Degas.61

Paul Cézanne, a Post-Impressionist, is the final artist to observe from the nineteenth century whose painting style mimics Japanese traditions. His painting Mont Sainte-Victoire and the

Viaduct of the Arc River Valley (Figure 24) was done between 1882 and 1885. It is known that

Cézanne painted thirty-six views of Mont Sainte-Victoire because he was influenced by Hokusai, who had created thirty-six views of Mount Fuji in woodblock prints. Scholar Hidemichi Tanaka compared Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley with Hokusai’s Lake

Suwa in Shinano Province from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji,62 but it is also

59 Lambourne, 42-43. 60 Deborah Johnson, "Cassatt’s Color Prints of 1891: The Unique Evolution of a Palette," Source: Notes in the History of Art 9, no. 3 (1990): 31, accessed March 20, 2020, www.jstor.org/stable/23202649. 61 Johnson, 34. 62 Hidemichi Tanaka, "Cézanne and "Japonisme"," Artibus Et Historiae 22, no. 44 (2001): 215, accessed May 5, 2019, doi:10.2307/1483720. 26 plausible to compare Cézanne’s painting with Hokusai’s Mishima Pass in Ka Province from the same series (Figure 25) in 1830 as scholar Shigemi Inaga does. Most notably in this work,

Cézanne rejects academic linear perspective.63 In both images, the tree is the central focus. The mountain can be seen easily in Hokusai’s print, but it is almost blending into the sky in

Cézanne’s painting. Hokusai’s print remains traditional and flat and accentuates the tall tree in the foreground. Cézanne’s tree is a bit smaller but accentuated by the heavy black outlines. The eye is immediately drawn to the center of the canvas because of the contrast between the bright colors and the outline of the tree. Behind the tree is a vast landscape that appears to be flat. Even though the architecture in the background is smaller it does not feel as though there is any substantial space between the tree and the bridge. These two elements make the shape of a cross over the entire canvas. Cézanne was influenced by Hokusai’s print techniques and used them frequently throughout his painting series.

Studying these four artists not only shows how they were influenced by Japonisme but how they were active during the same time as Monet, thus showing how pervasive Japanese influence was on European artists in the years of the Impressionist movement. It is more encouraging, however, that Whistler was painting from Japanese prints in the years during and before

Impression, Sunrise.

63 Inaga, 88. 27

3. Impression, Sunrise: A Painting Fit for Woodblock

The Beginnings of Impressionism

Monet’s famous painting, Impression, Sunrise (Figure 1) was painted in 1872 and depicted the growing maritime port of Le Havre, Normandy. Steamboats were becoming more prominent in the new industrial age and frequented the port to unload their cargo. The port was equipped with two jetties that framed an access channel, which was 450 meters long and 100 meters wide.

The access channel led to the outer harbor and served nine wet docks that were accessed by a lock with thirteen tide gates. Monet had returned to Le Havre in 1872 and was occupying a hotel room when he painted the famous work. Monet never specified which hotel he had stayed at when he created the image, but it is assumed that the Hôtel de l’Amirauté was the closest possible view.64 In 1897, Monet stated, “I had something I painted from my window in Le

Havre: the sun in the mist and in the foreground some masts sticking up. They wanted to know its title for the catalogue because it couldn’t really pass for a view of Le Havre. I replied, ‘Use

Impression.’”65

The painting was painted in a short amount of time. The reflections of the sun in the water and the three bold boats were added when he was finished painting the rest of the canvas. The mist covers the scene in the background, but the viewer can still make out the pieces of industrial landscape. In the center is the Écluse des Transatlantiques and on the left are the masts of ships and a smoking chimney; on the right are lines indicating cranes, derricks, and a building. The presence of the building on the left, the Quai au Bois, supports the date of the painting, as it was constructed in 1872. It housed the steam engines and had a tall chimney, which is seen in the

64 Géraldine Lefebvre, “Impression, Sunrise in the Port of Le Havre,” in Monet’s Impression, Sunrise: The Biography of a Painting, ed. Marianne Mathieu and Dominique Lobstein (Paris: Éditions Hazan, 2014), 59. 65 Lefebvre, 59. 28 painting. On the right, the expansion of the outer harbor of Ponts et Chaussées is taking place.

The tide gate in the Écluse des Transatlantiques is open and a large boat pulled by a tug is leaving the dock. The boat in the foreground is the darkest, while the boat in the back is lighter, indicating that it is farther away and covered by more mist than the first.66 Monet depicted his view of the harbor in the only way that he saw fit. With barely any black paint (a commonality among Impressionists), he shows us a colorful view from his own perception of a moment in time, his ‘impression.’

In the spring of 1874, Impression, Sunrise was exhibited in the first group exhibition for the

Impressionists.67 The group- called the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptures, Printmakers, etc., included Monet, Degas, Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Alfred

Sisley, and Jean Frèdéric Bazille. These artists wanted to change how people viewed art and create new artistic standards. These standards were set by the Academie des Beaux-Arts, a state sponsored institution that required artists to submit paintings that followed their strict rules. They awarded artists who finished large and conventional paintings (biblical, historical, or mythological). At the 1874 exhibition, art critic Louis Leroy coined the term “impressionism” as an insult and stated the exhibit was, “hostile to good artistic manner, to devotion to form, and respect for the masters.”68 Thus, the term Impressionism was coined and named the new movement.

Scholars tend to link Monet’s later paintings such as Water Lilies or The Japanese Footbridge with the influx of Japanese products entering France, but not many would single out Impression,

66 Lefebvre, 63-65. 67 John House, Impressionism: Paint and Politics (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2004), 54-55. 68 Lindsay Snider, "A Lasting Impression: French Painters Revolutionize the Art World," The History Teacher 35, no. 1 (2001): 89-90, accessed March 17, 2020, www.jstor.org/stable/3054513. 29

Sunrise as showing a Japanese influence from that period.69 Impression, Sunrise was created ten years after the Japonisme fad began so why would it be inconceivable to think that such an influence exists? By examining Monet’s painting alongside a variety of Japanese prints, it is easy to see how Impression, Sunrise was influenced by Japanese printmakers. Especially since Monet was known to use different aspects of a variety of prints and combine them into one painting.70

A Widespread Craze

We know that Monet began collecting Japanese prints as early as the mid-1860s, if not the mid to late 50s when they first came around.71 According to House,

“Japanese art helped him to see the pictorial possibilities of such forms and suggested ways of framing them on the canvas, but the final structure of each picture is the result of his direct confrontation with the motif. Japanese art may be equally relevant where no such close parallel exists, and similarities are close as these could well have arisen without Monet having known the particular prints in question, simply from his fascination with such forms in nature and his understand of the compositional conventions of the Japanese print. Even where we can compare his paintings with particular Japanese prints which he owned, he may well have bought the print in question after he had painted the work it resembles, perhaps even because of this resemblance.”72

Therefore, the object in arguing Impression, Sunrise was influenced by Japanese prints comes from observing works that Monet did not necessarily own, but ones of which he could have seen and drawn an inspiration from in terms of technique.

Our first objective is to bring in compelling evidence that prints by Hiroshige are similar to

Monet’s work and could have been used by Monet as a definite influence. Hiroshige’s print,

Meisho Edo Hyakkei-Shiba Ura no Fukei from 1856 (Figure 26), resembles Monet’s painting in the way that Hiroshige portrays the boats. The angle that the first three boats sit at corresponds

69 See House, Monet: Nature into Art, 59. 70 Hokenson, 24. 71 House, Monet: Nature Into Art, 47. 72 House, Monet: Nature Into Art, 58. 30 closely to the angle of the three boats in the foreground of Monet’s painting. The first boat in each work is larger than the boats receding further into space. The boats with sails in the background of Hiroshige’s print are clearly depicted, but in Monet’s painting, the background buildings are hidden behind a mist and we are only able to see the silhouettes of them. We also can see the depiction of moving water in Hiroshige’s foreground, which is also present in the quick brushstrokes in the foreground of Monet’s painting. Hiroshige’s print shows no indication of a sun, but it could be depicting sunrise or sunset based on the colors present in the sky. The two works also have a similar perspective and cropping. To the right of Monet’s painting are the faint lines of the cranes building the new city, which lines up with the right side of Hiroshige’s print. He uses blocks of land and trees and Monet replaces this with his modern equipment. The final similarity between these two images is the high horizon line, both of which are in the top half of the image. Although Hiroshige’s is clearly defined, Monet’s is only slightly defined, like in Turner’s watercolor. The painting blurs the land and sky together, only showing the difference in the middle where the land peaks over the water.

While it is possible that Monet was influenced by Turner’s The Scarlet Sunset (Figure 7),

Souren Melikian of The New York Times downplays the influence of this painting, saying that even though the catalogue book from the Turner, Whistler, Monet exhibition held at the Grand

Palais in Paris states Monet was influenced by Turner’s watercolor, the visual evidence does not support it. The analogy is apparent in the vast expanse of water seen in dim light, but Monet’s painting is firmly structured, and Turner’s is not.73 Monet himself denied Turner’s influence to

French journalist Raymond Koechlin, who stated, “It has often been said that Turner was

73 Souren Melikian, “Parallel Processions, but the Case for 'Influence' Is Not Made: Turner, Whistler and Monet,” The New York Times, The New York Times, December 11, 2004, accessed March 20, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/11/style/parallel-processions-but-the-case-for-influence-is-not-made-turner.html. 31 important in Monet’s development; he has always denied it, and indeed his development had begun long before he knew Turner’s work at the National Gallery; besides, as he never tried to deny in conversation, he was out of sympathy with this work because of its exuberantly romantic imagination,” and also states to French art dealer René Gimpel in 1918, “Once I liked Turner very much, but now I like him less---he did not lay out his colour carefully enough, and he used too much of it. I have studied him well.”74 Scholar House also agrees the influence of Turner is not present in Impression, Sunrise. He states, “The motif of the sun setting over the water in

Impression, Sunrise... may echo Turner, but his handling and colour at this period are quite unlike Turner’s, and... continue a development begun before he knew Turner’s work.”75 I agree with both Melikian and House, that Monet’s Impression, Sunrise does not show a significant influence from color, however, it can be argued that he had an influence from Turner’s watercolor in the subject matter or the motif of the sun. Considering this, his work points more towards an influence from Japanese prints.

Another print by Hiroshige, Mouth of the Aji River in Settsu Province, from the series

Wrestling Matches between Mountains and Seas (Figure 27), made in 1858, shows the same type of setup. Boats are lined up and headed toward to foreground of the print instead of the background, but they are aligned at the opposite angle to Monet’s boats. If reversed, it would be exceptionally similar to Monet’s painting, just like the first print. The biggest difference is that the details of the boats are not as present in this print as they were in the last, giving the print a closer appearance to Monet’s vivid brushstrokes as opposed to the clarity and sharpness of the previous print. The mountains in the background show only trace amounts of detail other than their peaks. The trees on the right look like the quick brushstrokes in Monet’s foreground, which

74 House, Monet: Nature Into Art, 113. 75 House, Monet: Nature Into Art, 113. 32 is an intriguing detail to observe. The colors in Hiroshige’s print also resemble Monet’s painting.

The most notable difference here is that Monet puts reflections on the water in his painting, where the prints do not. Regardless of this fact, Hiroshige had a profound impact on Monet’s career and the careers of his fellow Impressionists. Not only did Monet draw inspiration and technique from Hiroshige, but Hokusai as well.

Hokusai’s print Moonlight on the Yodo River, from the series Snow, Moon, and Flowers

(Figure 28) from 1833 may also have served as an inspiration to Monet. While there are boats in this print, as there were in Hiroshige’s, the focus of similarities between this print and Monet’s painting lies in the background. The boats in the foreground are similar in that they have that angular disposition, but the way that Hokusai blends the land into the sky is similar to the way in which Monet does so in his work. In Hokusai’s work, the clouds begin to form in the upper middle part of the print, so the viewer can assume that the sky has begun. However, there are still distant mountains poking through the tops of the clouds. The land below the clouds is depicted in the same color as the sky above the clouds, blending both together. We know that it is the sky in the top of the print because of the moon in the upper left-hand corner. The moon in Hokusai’s print mirrors the sun in Monet’s painting. While we know that Monet painted what he saw was happening, one could assert that this could have been an influence on the position he chose when he painted Le Havre. Japanese prints used many hard vertical, diagonal, and horizontal lines, and these can be seen in Monet’s quick brush strokes in the background of his painting. The sky in

Impression, Sunrise can be compared to Hokusai, but the details in the background under the sky can be compared to Utamaro. The distant land in Hokusai’s print can also be compared to

Monet’s work here in that the details are not as elaborate as the front elements. This can allude to space in the print even though it appears flat. Monet’s painting is the same but covered with mist 33 and is even more lacking in detail. As can be noted by all three of these prints, a man stands at the back of the boat, directing it where to go. Monet’s painting also depicts a figure standing at the back of the boat holding a pole, mirroring the figures in the prints.

Utamaro typically worked with portraits or landscapes filled with people, as in his work Girls

Gathering Shells on the Seashore (Figure 29) from 1790, which can be used as a comparison to

Monet’s Impression, Sunrise because of the details in the background, or lack thereof. Utamaro’s print is full of women on the shore of a beach, but in the background are boats, land, and mountains. The front of the print is intricate in that the kimonos are depicted with ornamentation, the trees are defined, the shore has a sandy texture, and the buildings have windows and doors.

As the viewer investigates the background, the details of the boats and mountains turn into silhouettes. The mountains in the upper left are reduced to black lines. This aligns with Monet’s lack of detail in the background of his painting. Utamaro, like Hokusai and many other Japanese printmakers at the time, also blends the sky into the water in some parts of the print by not adding a black line to separate them. Hiroshige, Hokusai, and Utamaro all helped to shape the ukiyo-e movement during their time, and their works influenced Monet’s art.

While Monet’s style can also be interpreted more simply as showing a lack of detail for a quicker brushstroke to create that true ‘impression’ of time in a work, it seems just as likely that

Japanese techniques- the perspective, the angles, the skewed perspective horizon lines- inspired

Monet. It is possible that he used his knowledge of Japanese prints to position himself for the best angle that he could paint. Thus, Impression, Sunrise was created from a variety of

Hiroshige, Hokusai, and Utamaro’s print techniques. Similarities between the Japanese prints and Monet’s Impression, Sunrise cannot be denied and, therefore, deserve to be thought of as an inspiration in such a groundbreaking work. 34

4. Conclusion

The Aftermath of Monet

Though the paintings of Monet were created over a hundred and fifty years ago, a recent controversy took place in 2015 regarding the display of La Japonaise (Figure 12) mentioned previously. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts held an exhibition including La Japonaise to highlight the nineteenth century fascination with Japonisme. Within the exhibition, a replica kimono matching Camille’s was displayed. The museum decided to hold “Kimono

Wednesdays,” where every Wednesday the museum visitors could try on this kimono and be ‘in the spirit’ of Camille herself. The museum claimed this program to be a different type of engagement with the painting that allowed for a better viewer experience. Protestors began standing in front of the painting claiming that it was racist and a form of cultural appropriation and Orientalism. Edward Said defines Orientalism as three different things. First, “...a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient’s special place in European Western experience.”76 Second, “...a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between “the Orient” and (most of the time) “the Occident.””77 Lastly, "Taking the late eighteenth century as a very roughly defined starting point Orientalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient- dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient."78 Not everyone agreed however, and counter-protestors began making the stand against them. The social media presence eventually became too much and the museum issued an

76 Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Random House Inc., 1979), 1. 77 Said, 2. 78 Said, 3. 35 apology and changed the event to where the guests could only touch the kimono instead of wearing it. They also added extra information regarding the painting and included lectures on

Japonisme. Again, the original protestors rose up and said that it was still Orientalism.79 They felt that the museum “actively reaffirms the notion that Asian-identified folk are the Other”.80

The protestors read the painting as a commentary on how they thought that “both the painting and Japonisme as a whole reflect an unhealthy, damaging fascination with Japan that falls within the definition of…Orientalism”.81

The word ‘kimono’ translates to ‘a thing to wear’ and was created as a word in Japan during the time when Matthew Perry had forcibly ended the isolation of Japan and English languages began to make their way into Japanese culture. Before Western dress began to take over, there was no need in Japan for a word that described normal Japanese dress. Because of Western dress exportation and importation, Japanese traditional styles were thrown to the side or were designated for specific events or genders. Kimonos were also popular export items, which led to

Monet’s purchase of one in 1876, presumably the one Camille wears. Today, the kimono is used for specialized events and is not considered an everyday garment. This is what, in part, creates the tension of the kimono from La Japonaise being on display and able to be worn by others.

This kind of kimono was worn only by brides or by kabuki actors, who were all men. Not only was the kimono for certain occasions, but also only worn by a certain gender during a certain time.82 Michelle Carriger phrases this as such, “This means that BMFA visitors were ‘learning

Japanese culture’ by pretending to be a French woman pretending to be a Japanese woman by

79 Julie Valk, "Research Note: The "Kimono Wednesday" Protests: Identity Politics and How the Kimono Became More Than Japanese," Asian Ethnology 74, no. 2 (2015): 380-382, accessed October 31, 2019, www.jstor.org/stable/43799246. 80 Valk, 383. 81 Valk, 385. 82 Carriger, 170-174. 36 wearing a replica of a theatrical costume meant to be worn by…a male player of women’s roles- who had himself been pretending to be a Japanese woman, likely a courtesan character.”83 When we think of the exhibition in this way, then we recall that Japan was forced to open their ports and began exporting kimonos and forced to change their dress, we can see how this describes

Edward Said’s definition of Orientalism and cultural appropriation. Many could conclude that

Monet exploited the kimono worn by Camille, especially after referring to the finished painting as “rubbish.”84 In my opinion, in the case of La Japonaise, Monet was driven by the need for money, thus he did exploit the kimono and gave into Orientalism and cultural appropriation. This could have bee avoided if he had shown more sensitivity in this work by embracing Japanese culture instead of making a Western identity. In terms of Monet’s works that were influenced by

Japanese prints, I do not believe that these could be considered Orientalist because they bear cultural sensitivity--- in this case they do not actually show Japanese products, but show an appreciation for the Japanese printmaking techniques.

Concluding Observations

It is important to study the effects of Japonisme on Monet’s work because it shows that

Impression, Sunrise was undoubtedly influenced by Japanese prints through the cropping of the painting, the structured layers, and the flat appearance, alluding to the rejection of frame and linear perspective. After the gates of Japan were forcibly reopened for trade in 1854 (though later welcomed) due to the American Matthew Perry, Japanese cultural objects flooded into Paris and

Europe. This allowed for European collectors to take advantage of collecting Japanese fans,

83 Carriger, 174-175. 84 Heinrich, 42. 37 illustrated books, prints, and ceramics. The importation also allowed artists to encounter

Japanese prints and use them as an inspiration in their works.85 From this, the term Japonisme was termed by Phillippe Burty in 1872, the same year Impression, Sunrise was created.86 Ten years prior, in 1862, Japanese woodblock prints began to appear in Paris, introducing Western artists to Hiroshige, Hokusai, Utamaro, and other Japanese printmakers. Their prints have been characterized as ‘discordant compositions, brilliant red and yellow colors, simple stylized figures, odd cropping and silhouetting, the indifference to frame, the decentered perspective, and the bold overlays and transparences,” by contemporary scholar Hokeson.87 Prints flourished and were collected by many Parisians, especially Monet. He hung the Japanese prints he collected on the walls of his home, having over a hundred of them by Hiroshige, Hokusai, and Utamaro by the end of his life.88 Monet took techniques from these prints and incorporated them into his artwork, including the famous Impression, Sunrise.

Other artists from Paris in the nineteenth century also partook in using Japanese print techniques to create works of art. Whistler, Degas, Cassatt, and Cézanne all used this widespread cultural appropriation of Japanese goods to their advantage. These artists are important for my argument because they used Japanese print techniques alongside Monet, and through studying their paintings we can see an individuality present in Monet’s work. Monet not only drew inspiration from one print at a time but drew inspiration from multiple prints and created one single work from them.89

85 Lambourne, 18-24, 27. 86 Weisburg, 120. 87 Hokenson, 18. 88 “Giverny: Collection of Japanese Prints of Claude Monet,” Giverny Village, March 18, 2014, accessed March 20, 2020, https://www.giverny.fr/en/information/cultural-information/giverny-collection-of-japanese-prints-of-claude- monet/. 89 Hokenson, 24. 38

By observing prints from Hiroshige, Hokusai, and Utamaro, I assert that Monet’s Impression,

Sunrise was inspired by a variety of works by the aforementioned artists, even after viewing

Turner’s watercolor. It is of my opinion that Turner’s watercolor is not structured, and Monet’s painting is, therefore the only conclusion could be the influence of Japanese prints as opposed to an inspiration from Turner. While Monet’s style was set in stone in terms of his use of color to create atmospheric effects, quick brush strokes, and his dedication to painting en plein air, he was certainly influenced in perspective, silhouetting, and cropping from studying Japanese prints. These techniques are transparent in his Impression, Sunrise in the way that he determined what angle to paint Le Havre from, the faint details in the background of the image, the angle of the boats and how they are perceived, and in the way the horizon line sits at an exaggerated low point, present in Hiroshige’s and Hokusai’s works. We can also observe the way the sky blends into the water as a trait in Hokusai’s Moonlight on the Yodo River and Utamaro’s Girls

Gathering Shells on the Seashore. With all of the knowledge and technique Monet had obtained through his studies of Japanese culture and Japanese works of art, there is no possible way that his paintings, including Impression, Sunrise were not influenced in some way by Japanese printmakers. Their legacies influenced Monet in a way that advanced his career and allowed him to create a movement with one single painting.

39

Figure 1: Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872, oil on canvas, 1 ft. 7 in. x 2 ft. 1 in., Musée

Marmottan Monet, Paris.

40

Figure 2: Claude Monet, Rufus Croutinelli, ca. 1859, black crayon on paper, 13 x 8.4 cm, The

Art Institute of Chicago. 41

Figure 3: Claude Monet, Hunting Trophies, 1862, oil on canvas, 104 x 75 cm, Musée d’Orsay,

Paris.

42

Figure 4: Claude Monet, Road in Chailly, 1865, oil on canvas, 42 x 59 cm, Musée d’Orsay,

Paris.

43

Figure 5: Claude Monet, Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe, 1865, oil on canvas, 130 x 181 cm, Pushkin

Museum, Moscow.

44

Figure 6: Claude Monet, La Grenouillère, 1869, oil on canvas, 74.5 x 99.7 cm, Metropolitan

Museum of Art, New York.

45

Figure 7: Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Scarlet Sunset, 1830-40, watercolor and gouache on paper, 134 x 189 mm, Tate, London. 46

Figure 8: Claude Monet, Regatta in Argenteuil, 1872, oil on canvas, 48 x 75 cm, Musée d’Orsay,

Paris.

47

Figure 9: Claude Monet, Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies, 1899, oil on canvas, 92.7 x 73.7 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

48

Figure 10: Utagawa Hiroshige, Precincts of the Tenjin Shrine at Kameido (Kameido Tenjin keidai), no. 57 from the series One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei), sixth month of 1856, color woodcut, 13 7/16 x 8 ¾ in, Fine Arts Museums of San

Francisco, San Francisco.

49

Figure 11: Claude Monet, The Japanese Footbridge, ca. 1920-22, oil on canvas, 89.5 x 116.3 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

50

Figure 12: Claude Monet, La Japonaise, 1876, oil on canvas, 231.8 x 142.3 cm, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 51

Figure 13: Claude Monet, The Terrace at Sainte-Adresse, 1867, oil on canvas, 98.1 x 129.9 cm,

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

52

Figure 14: Katsushika Hokusai, Sazai Hall at the Temple of the Five Hundred Arhats (Gohyaku

Rakanji Sazaidō), from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, 1830-1833, woodcut, 23.9 x

34.3 cm, British Museum, London.

53

Figure 15: Katsushika Hokusai, Maisaka, from an untitled series of the Fifty-three Stations of the

Tôkaidô Road, ca. 1804, woodblock print, 11.9 x 18.1 cm, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

54

Figure 16: James Abbott McNeill Whistler, The Balcony, c. 1864-79, oil on canvas, 61.4 x 48.8 cm, Freer Gallery, Washington, D.C. 55

Figure 17: Suzuki Harunobu, Ladies on a Balcony, Japanese woodblock print. 56

Figure 18: James Abbott McNeil Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Gold- Old Battersea Bridge,

1872-5, oil on canvas, 68.3 x 51.2 cm, Tate Museum, London. 57

Figure 19: Utagawa Hiroshige, Bamboo Yards, Kyobashi Bridge, No. 76 from One Hundred

Famous Views of Edo, 1857, sheet: 36 x 23.5 cm, image: 34.1 x 22.2 cm, Brooklyn Museum,

New York. 58

Figure 20: Edgar Degas, Winding River, 1890, oil monotype and pastel on heavy paper; laid down on paper-wrapped millboard, 29.5 x 39.5 cm, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis.

59

Figure 21: Utagawa Hiroshige, Asuma Shrine and the Entwined Camphor, No. 31 in One

Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 7th month of 1857, woodblock print, image: 34 x 22.2 cm,

Brooklyn Museum, New York. 60

Figure 22: Mary Cassatt, The Letter, 1890-91, drypoint and aquatint, printed in color from three plates, plate: 34.6 x 22.7 cm, sheet: 43.2 x 29.8 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New

York. 61

Figure 23: Kitagawa Utamaro, Hinazuru of the Keizetsuro, from the series Comparing the

Charms of Beauties, 1789-1800, color woodblock print; oban, 39.2 x 26.2 cm, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. 62

Figure 24: Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley, 1882-85, oil on canvas, 65.4 x 81.6 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

63

Figure 25: Katsushika Hokusai, Mishima Pass in Kai Province (Kōshū Mishima goe), from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei), 1830-32, polychrome woodblock print; ink and color on paper, 24.8 x 37.5 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

64

Figure 26: Utagawa Hiroshige, Meisho Edo Hyakkei-Shiba Ura no Fukei, woodblock print; ink and color on paper, 34.3 x 22.7 cm, National Museum of Asian Art, Washington D.C.

65

Figure 27: Utagawa Hiroshige, Mouth of the Aji River in Settsu Province, from the series

Wrestling Matches between Mountains and Seas, 1858, woodblock print; ink and color on paper,

24.6 x 35.2 cm, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

66

Figure 28: Katsushika Hokusai, Moonlight on the Yodo River, from the series Snow, Moon, and

Flowers, 1833, polychrome woodblock print; ink and color on paper, 24.4 x 37 cm, The

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

67

Figure 29: Kitagawa Utamaro, Girls Gathering Shells on the Sea Shore, 1790, polychrome woodblock print; ink and color on paper, 36.8 x 22.9 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New

York.

68

REFERENCES

Abou-Jaoude, Amir Lowell. "A Pure Invention: Japan, Impressionism, and the West, 1853- 1906." The History Teacher 50, no. 1 (2016): 57-82. Accessed March 17, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/44504454.

Baron, Wendy. "Whistler and the Thames: London, Andover and Washington." The Burlington Magazine 156, no. 1331 (2014): 123-24. Accessed March 17, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/24241208.

Bénédite, Léonce. “Whistler.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 3, 34 (August 1904): 142. Cited in John Sandberg, “’Japonisme” and Whistler.” The Burlington Magazine 106, no. 740 (1964): 500- 505+507. Accessed April 6, 2019. www.jstor.org/stable/874429.

Call, Michael J. Claude Monet, Free Thinker: Radical Republicanism, Darwin’s Science, and the Evolution of Impressionist Aesthetics. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc, 2015.

Carriger, Michelle Liu. “No ‘Thing to Wear’: A Brief History of Kimono and Inappropriation from Japonisme to Kimono Protests.” Theatre Research International 43, no. 2 (2018): 165-184. doi:10.1017/S0307883318000287.

De Goncourt, Edmond. Hokusai. Russia: Parkstone International, 2014. Accessed January 19, 2020. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hokusai/JsujAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0.

De Goncourt, Edmond. Utamaro. United Kingdom: Parkstone International, 2015. Accessed January 19, 2020. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Utamaro/c26lCgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0.

“Giverny: Collection of Japanese Prints of Claude Monet.” Giverny Village, March 18, 2014. Accessed March 20, 2020. https://www.giverny.fr/en/information/cultural-information/giverny- collection-of-japanese-prints-of-claude-monet/.

Harris, Frederick. Ukiyo-e. Japan: Tuttle Publishing, 2012.

Heinrich, Christopher. Monet. Cologne, Germany: Taschen, 2000.

Hokenson, Jan. "Proust's "japonisme": Contrastive Aesthetics." Modern Language Studies 29, no. 1 (1999): 17-37. Accessed April 6, 2019. doi:10.2307/3195357.

House, John. Impressionism: Paint and Politics. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2004.

House, John. Monet: Nature Into Art. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1986.

69

Inaga, Shigemi. "The Making of Hokusai's Reputation in the Context of Japonisme." Japan Review, no. 15 (2003): 77-100. Accessed March 21, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/25791270.

Johnson, Deborah. "Cassatt’s Color Prints of 1891: The Unique Evolution of a Palette." Source: Notes in the History of Art 9, no. 3 (1990): 31-39. Accessed March 22, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/23202649.

Lambourne, Lionel. Japonisme: Cultural Crossing between Japan and the West. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2005.

Lefebvre, Géraldine. “Impression, Sunrise in the Port of Le Havre.” In Monet’s Impression, Sunrise: The Biography of a Painting, ed. Marianne Mathieu and Dominique Lobstein. Paris: Éditions Hazan, 2014.

Lochnan, Katherine A., Turner, Whistler, Monet. UK: Gardner Books, 2004.

Meech-Pekarik, Julia. "Early Collectors of Japanese Prints and the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum Journal17 (1982): 93-118. Accessed March 15, 2020. doi:10.2307/1512790.

Melikian, Souren. “Parallel Processions, but the Case for 'Influence' Is Not Made: Turner, Whistler and Monet.” The New York Times. The New York Times, December 11, 2004. Accessed March 20, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/11/style/parallel-processions-but- the-case-for-influence-is-not-made-turner.html.

Rassieur, Tom. "Degas and Hiroshige." Print Quarterly 28, no. 4 (2011): 429-31. Accessed October 31, 2019. www.jstor.org/stable/43826174.

Royal Society of Arts (Great Britain). “Irrigation with Street Sewage.” in Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 22. London: George Bell and Sons, December 1873.

Sagner-Düchting, Karin. Claude Monet: 1840-1926, A Feast for the Eyes. Cologne: Taschen, 1998.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Random House Inc., 1979.

Samu, Margaret. “Impressionism: Art and Modernity.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/imml/hd_imml.htm.

Sandberg, John. “‘Japonisme’ and Whistler.” The Burlington Magazine 106, no. 740 (1964): 500-505+507. Accessed April 6, 2019. www.jstor.org/stable/874429.

70

Seitz, William. "Monet and Abstract Painting." College Art Journal 16, no. 1 (1956): 34-46. Accessed January 31, 2019. doi:10.2307/772846.

Snider, Lindsay. "A Lasting Impression: French Painters Revolutionize the Art World." The History Teacher 35, no. 1 (2001): 89-101. Accessed March 17, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/3054513.

Tanaka, Hidemichi. "Cézanne and "Japonisme"." Artibus Et Historiae 22, no. 44 (2001): 201-20. Accessed March 15, 2020. doi:10.2307/1483720.

Uspensky, Mikhail. Hiroshige. United Kingdom: Parkstone International, 2014. Biography. Accessed January 19, 2020. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hiroshige/SQb3AAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0.

Utagawa Hiroshige: Precincts of the Tenjin Shrine in Kameido. Indianapolis Museum of Art Online Collection. Accessed January 16, 2020. http://collection.imamuseum.org/artwork/17954/.

Valk, Julie. "Research Note: The "Kimono Wednesday" Protests: Identity Politics and How the Kimono Became More Than Japanese." Asian Ethnology 74, no. 2 (2015): 379-399. Accessed October 31, 2019. www.jstor.org/stable/43799246.

Weisburg, Gabriel P. "Aspects of Japonisme." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, no. 4 (1975): 120-130. Accessed April 6, 2019. www.jstor.org/stable/25152585.

Weisburg, Gabriel P., Phillip Dennis Cate, Gerald Needham, etc. Japonisme: Japanese Influence on French Art 1854-1910. Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1975.

Zeidler, Birgit. Claude Monet: Life and Work. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2000.