Assignment 4: First Draft of Essay Flowers Across Cultures: How Did Japanese Art of the Edo Period Influence the Floral Images of Vincent Van Gogh, Odilon Redon and Edna Boies Hopkins? Table of Contents List of Figures 2 1. Introduction 3 2. Japonisme and its Influence on Art in Europe and North America 3 2.1 Influence of Japonisme 4 2.2 Subjects Portrayed in Japanese Art 4 2.3 Japonisme and Orientalism 5 3. Theoretical Framework 6 4. Findings and Discussion 7 4.1 Vincent Van Gogh 7 4.2 Odilon Redon 13 4.3 Edna Boies Hopkins 18 5. Conclusion 23 References 25 Bibliography 30 Glossary 43 Creative Arts Level 3 – Research - Assignment 4 – Bob Coe Student Number 507140 Page 1 of 43 List of Figures Fig. 1 Van Gogh, V. (1887) Flowering Plum Orchard (after Hiroshige). [Oil on canvas], At https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0115V1962 (Accessed 19/11/2020). Fig. 2 Hiroshige, U. (1857) Plum Estate, Kameido, No 30 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. [Woodblock print] At https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1948-0410-0-65 (Accessed 19/11/2020). Fig. 3 Van Gogh, V. (1890) Almond Blossom. [Oil on canvas] At https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0176V1962 (Accessed 19/11/2020). Fig. 4 Van Gogh, V. (1888) Sunflowers. [Oil on canvas] At https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/vincent-van-gogh-sunflowers (Accessed 19/11/2020). Fig. 5 Redon, O. (1903) Paravent d'Olivier Sainsère. [Tempera, oil paint, gouache on canvas] At https://gifu-art.info/details.php?id=3222 (Accessed 19/11/2020). Fig. 6 Studio of Tawaraya Sōtatsu, [mid-to late 17th Century] Moon and Autumn Grasses. [ink, colour, silver, and gold flecks on paper], At https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/48923 (Accessed 19/11/2020). Fig. 7 Redon, O. (c.1912-14) Vase of Flowers. [Pastel and pencil on coloured paper] At https://www.moma.org/collection/works/37321 (Accessed 19/11/2020). Fig. 8 Redon, O. (1908) Vase au Guerrier Japonais (Flowers in a Japanese Vase) [Oil on canvas] At https://www.polamuseum.or.jp/english/collection/016-0033/ (Accessed 19/11/2020). Fig. 9 Boies Hopkins, E. (c1906) Achillea. [Colour woodblock print] At https://collections.mfa.org/objects/92237/achilles (Accessed 19/11/2020). Fig. 10 Boies Hopkins, E. (c1915-1916) Sunflowers Against a Green Ground [Colour woodcut print] At https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/art/explore-the-collection?id=21177198 (Accessed 19/11/2020). Fig. 11 Boies Hopkins, E. (c.1920-23) Green Arrangement, [Colour woodcut print] At https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/art/explore-the-collection?id=21330561 (Accessed 19/11/2020). Creative Arts Level 3 – Research - Assignment 4 – Bob Coe Student Number 507140 Page 2 of 43 1. Introduction At the end of the 19th century Japanese art had a significant impact in Europe and America: Painting from the Impressionist period onward was influenced by Japanese prints exhibiting “flatness, brilliant colour, and high degree of stylisation” (Wilson & Lack 2016:147). This led to the coining of the term Japonisme which described “European borrowings from Japanese art” (Floyd 2003). In this essay I shall look at the influence of Japanese art on the floral images of three artists working around the turn of the 19th century. I shall study the work of Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), Odilon Redon (1840-1916) and Edna Boies Hopkins (1872- 1937) to investigate the extent of their borrowings from Japanese art as well as contextual influences that may have affected their work. The literature suggests these artists were influenced by Japanese art in different ways and to different degrees. They made their images in the period 1880-1920, had individual styles and worked in different media. Van Gogh is famous for his oil paintings; Redon is known for a variety of styles and media but his best-known floral images were produced in pastel or oil; Boies Hopkins was an American printmaker. With their different styles and media, I shall investigate whether there are any common influences or differences in the reactions of each artist. As well as analysing the formal details of images I shall also investigate the contextual circumstances that could have affected how the artists responded. I shall explore the concept of Orientalism as it relates to Japonisme and the role it may have played. 2. Japonisme and its Influence. Literature Review. Between the mid-17th and mid-19th Century Japan was a closed society with few relationships with European nations (Michiko 2014). In 1853 an American naval force sailed into Tokyo harbour to compel Japan to open trade with the USA (Asia for Educators 2009). The Japanese signed new trade agreements and the following decades saw a huge rise in Japanese exports, particularly to Europe, and a concerted effort by Japan to establish its image by sending emissaries to participate in European trade fairs and exhibitions (Burnham 2014). “Westerners became totally infatuated with the country’s culture and its arts” (Weisberg & Weisberg 1990:x). Creative Arts Level 3 – Research - Assignment 4 – Bob Coe Student Number 507140 Page 3 of 43 2.1 Influence of Japonisme Needham (1975) proposes two phases of Japonisme; “Open Air Impressionists” (ibid:115) including Manet, Degas, Whistler and Pissarro, and “Post-Impressionism and Symbolism” (ibid:124) including the Nabis, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Redon. Floyd (2003) includes many of these in her list of artists influenced by Japonisme, but also emphasises the dramatic change that the introduction of Japanese woodblock prints brought about in European and American printmaking. Artists were attracted to all aspects of Japanese art, but it was woodblock prints, particularly ukiyo-e, that had the most influence (Whitford 1977). These came to Europe in large numbers and were very cheaply purchased, just one dealer, Hayashi Tadamasi, sold almost 160,000 prints (Sigur2018:76). Berger’s analysis of ukiyo-e prints summarises the key points as “asymmetry, flatness of colors and design, simplification of line, stylization and decorative patterning” (Barrett 1993:102). To this list can be added “abstraction, and emphasis on the flatness of the picture plane” (Burnham 2014:13) Not every artist exhibited each of these influences, but many will have used one or more of the Japanese techniques in their work. As Berger (1992) points out, there is no single way in which Japanese art influenced Western artists. Hokusai may have influenced some artists and in a different way from Utamaro. It is important to recognise that artists did not simply copy Japanese work but used it as a way to solve problems “inherent in their own art” (Chisaburo 1980:9). “Japonisme was a major force in unsettling the old values and preparing the way for Modernism” (Chiba 1998:19) 2.3 Subjects portrayed in Japanese Art Six main themes featured in ukiyo-e prints of the Edo period: beautiful women, actors, warriors, landscapes, birds and flowers, and surimono poem prints (Norman 2014). Cortazzi (2011) describes the Japanese tradition of kacho-e, the portrayal of birds and flowers in painting and drawing. This derived from the historic Japanese schools of painting where artists strove not just for an accurate rendition, but “sought to capture the spiritual and cultural significance of the subject” (Norman 2014:20). Artists from the Rinpa School painted floral images “often distilling blossoms and petals to their essential, powerfully Creative Arts Level 3 – Research - Assignment 4 – Bob Coe Student Number 507140 Page 4 of 43 graphic forms” (Carpenter 2012:164). While birds and flowers together were a popular subject, there are many examples of purely floral images. Floral images are seldom used as examples of Japanese influence in texts devoted to Japonisme. This could be because relatively few of the artists concerned painted representations of flowers. Of the 330 images attributed to Whistler, I could find none of flowers (The Athenaeum s.d.); no solely floral images of the 775 attributed to Degas and of the 374 artworks by Mary Cassatt I could find just one, Lilacs in a Window. Even where painters are known for their floral images, e.g. Van Gogh, they are not frequently used to illustrate Japonisme. 2.5 Japonisme and Orientalism The term Orientalism originally referred to “eighteenth- and nineteenth-century scholars and linguists” (Weeks 2008:24) and the word Orientalist was applied to a “school of painting in the nineteenth century” (Greenwood & De Guise 2019:20). The perception of Orientalism changed drastically with the publication of Edward Said’s book Orientalism (Said 1978). Said used the term Orientalism to describe “the way the West has created a mythological identity about the East” (Wilson & Lack 2016:208), portraying the East as exotic, ‘other’ and inferior to the West. Said considered Orientalism to be a “Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient” (Said, 1978:11). Said’s work was both pioneering and controversial, attracting strong criticism. “Few books have at the same time stimulated so much controversy or influenced so many studies” (MacKenzie 1995:4). The criticisms came from two main sources – from traditional Orientalism academics who defended their studies against the charges made by Said, and from scholars who were inclined to support Said’s general points but were critical of his use of theory (Quinn 2017). A major criticism made by both groups was that Said did not “look at East and South Asia in his work” (Quinn 2017:56). Perhaps the most important aspect of Orientalism is the proposal that, although colonial regimes have ended, the colonial mentality remains in much of the academic and political outlook towards the East. Orientalism had a considerable effect on many Humanities studies. There was scant consideration of the visual arts in Orientalism (Bohrer 1988), but in The Imaginary Orient the Art Historian Linda Nochlin argued that Orientalist works of art should be subjected to “a Creative Arts Level 3 – Research - Assignment 4 – Bob Coe Student Number 507140 Page 5 of 43 critical analysis of the particular power structure in which these works came into being” (Nochlin 1989:34).