Colta Feller Ives. The Great Wave: The Influence of Japanese Woodcuts on French Print. — New York, 1974

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Admiral Perry broke through Japan’s isolation in 1854, the current of Japanese trade flowed west again, bearing with it the colored woodcuts of Hokusai, Hiroshige, and their contemporaries. Some of the most avid collectors of these prints were the French impressionists and Nabis, who found in them new ways to treat their own prints. In The Great Wave, Colta Feller Ives, Curator in Charge, Department of Prints and Photographs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, recounts the phenomenal “cult of Japan” in late nineteenth-century France and reveals through direct comparisons its particular impact on the graphic work of Manet, Degas, Cassatt, Bonnard, Vuillard, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Gauguin.

 

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Chronology of Related Events 7

Impressionism and Ukiyo-e 11

 

Edouard Manet 23

Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas 34

Mary Cassatt 45

Pierre Bonnard 56

Edouard Vuillard 67

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 79

Paul Gauguin 96

 

Selected Bibliography 111

 

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The role of Japanese prints in the history of impressionist painting is a curiosity that has long attracted scholars. Japan’s effect on European decorative arts, especially ceramics, has also drawn attention. But little recognition has been paid the influence of Japanese woodcuts on French prints—a late-nineteenth-century phenomenon in which the transfer of eastern manners to western means is strikingly clear, for the message was transmitted in the same medium: ink pressed upon paper. Although some of the most thoroughly Japan-persuaded artists painting in France in the last century —notably Monet and van Gogh—made few, if any, prints, the period is rich in etchings, lithographs, and wood-cuts steeped in japonisme.

 

The extensive collections of French and Japanese prints in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fortuitously stacked within a few steps of one another) have made it possible to bring together some of the finest examples of Ukiyo-e woodcuts and their western counterparts to illustrate the oriental lessons the French print-makers learned. The prints were originally selected for exhibition at the Metropolitan between January 14 and March 9, 1975; that their juxtapositions have also become the structure of a book is due to the enthusiasm and support of many individuals and institutions, all of whose thoughtful assistance is heartily appreciated.

 

The privilege of studying the Japanese prints in the Museum’s collections and planning the exhibition was granted through the indulgent cooperation of the Department of Far Eastern Art; Jean K. Schmitt, Julia Meech-Pekarik, and Graduate Assistant Sarah Bradley gave expert advice to me and valuable corrections to my text.

 

Every member of the Print Department staff contributed in some way toward the book and exhibition; thanks are due A. Hyatt Mayor, Janet S. Byrne, Mary L. Myers, Weston J. Naef, Suzanne Boorsch, David Kiehl, Edmond Stack, Mary Ann Elliott, and in particular, Dita Amory, who spent a summer ably troubleshooting for the project. Other members of the Museum staff who aided at crucial points along the way are John Walsh, Jr., Natalie Spassky, James Pilgrim, Katharine H. B. Stoddert, John K. Howat, and Kay Bearman.

 

In 1972 the Museum generously granted me the opportunity to research japonisme in French libraries and museums. For courtesies extended to me while I studied in their country I am indebted especially to Jean Adhémar and Nicole Villa, Département des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

 

An excursion to Japan in early 1974 was made possible by the graciousness of the Yomiyuri Shimbun and Dr. Chisaburoh Yamada, Director of the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo.

 

My research in New York was facilitated by Professor Theodore Reff, Columbia University, and Roberta Wong, Prints Division, New York Public Library.

 

The book would never have come to press had it not been for the patient attentions of Bradford D. Kelleher and Margot Feely of the Museum’s Publications Sales and Production departments; of Peter Oldenburg, who is responsible for the design; and of William F. Pons, who photographed the prints in the Museum’s collections. Polly Cone brought uncommon care and intelligence to both the editing and production of the book; I am grateful for her presence on every page.

 

It is to John J. McKendry, Curator of Prints, who has shared my fascination with this subject, aimed me in the right direction, and packed me off to the magic of Japan, that this work is dedicated.

 

 

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