Impressionism

Question 1

Discuss the significances of

i) Dreams of Japan and Ukiyo-e prints

ii) Photography

Dreams of Japan and Ukiyo-e Prints

 Ukiyo-e Prints:A genre of Japanese woodblock prints (or woodcuts) and paintings

Features motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters

“Ukiyo” - Literally translated as a "floating world" i.e. a hedonistic way of life, evanescent beauty and a realm of entertainment (kabuki, geisha, courtesans) detached from the responsibilities of the mundane, everyday world

About Ukiyo-e

How it started:

Roots of ukiyo-e can be traced to Japan’s urbanization that took place in the late 16th century (Edo period)

Popular themes & subjects:

Flashy kabuki actors and stylish courtesans, and erotica;

Political subjects and individuals above the lowest strata of society rarely appeared, unless in satire

Later on, artists started depicting scenes from nature, such as Hokusai's 36 views of Mt. Fuji

“The New Media of Edo”:

A form with great cultural interest, rather than just aesthetic value

Mass-produced works that deal with earthy themes, with functional value as entertainment, souvenir and informal decoration; not to be confused in any sense with a high, spiritual art like brush painting

About Ukiyo-e

Role in Japanese society:

Akin to modern-day entertainment magazines / pinups / mass media, and became extremely popular among the middle class thanks to a growing level of literacy

Vulgar, “Low” art, if considered art at all

Tales of Ise (1608), Hon’ami Koetsu

About Ukiyo-e

Social phenomena represented in print:

Primary aim to describe and chronicle popular urban culture, pastimes and tastes of the time; To introduce the masses to fashionable items and celebrities

Floating world sensibility - To seize the “here and now” of contemporary life

Reflected changes in society e.g. Political reforms in 1842 resulted in the banning of courtesan images, Depiction of foreign merchants and ships mirrored the rise of external trade and exposure to Western culture

Japonism, or Japonisme

Huge surge of Japanese influence!

How it came about:The end of sakoku (“national seclusion”) and the beginning of the Meiji Restoration led to a surge in photography and printing techniques imports from the West Ukiyo-e fell out of fashion and became worthless scraps of paper to package trade goods

Embraced by the West and became a major source of inspiration for the Impressionists

Subject matter

The trivial, ephemeral and fashionable appealed to the dandy bohemian nature of Baudelaire

“Realism” of urban life in Japan prior to industrialization, including satires of aristocracy

Unorthodox subject matters, scenes of brothels and street life which Western realists and avant garde artists identified with

Areas of influence

Style & Techniques

Stylised nature,

Flattened perspectives,

Apparently ad hoc compositions, Flat, decorative planes of colour, fresh and brilliant

Expressive patterns

How to combine and reconcile pictorial three-dimensional illusionism with the flat painted surface as a field for invention

James Abbot McNeil Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Cremorne Lights 1872

Katsushika Hokusai, South Wind, Clear Dawn, from Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji, c. 1830-2

Claude Monet, Haystack, Sunset, 1891

“People are not sufficiently aware of how much our contemporary landscape artists have borrowed from these pictures, especially Monet.”

- Edmund de Goncourt, 1892

Katsushika Hokusai, Women at the Public Bath, from the Manga vol. I, c. 1820

Edgar Degas, The Tub, 1886, pastel on paper, 23 x 32”

Kitagawa Utamaro, Courtesan Hinazuru at the Keizetsuru, c.1794-5

Mary Cassatt, The Letter, c.1890-1891, Drypoint and aquatint

“Looking at them, I think of Greek art, boredom in perfection, an art that will never free itself from the curse of being academic.” – Edmond de Goncourt

Photography!

 

Muybridge sequence of a horse jumping

By the time of the Impressionists, technical advances had led to the development of the snapshot camera

Eadweard Muybridge pioneered the use of multiple cameras to capture motion

Photography had a powerful influence on visual arts;Impressionism was very much considered a response to photography

Role of Photography

Visual record of the scene for later study

More importantly, photographs captured the real-life moments that Impressionists pursued

And its effects

Painting with the ‘eye’ of a camera -Unexpected, asymmetrical compositions

Before: Traditional composition with main subject as the focal point of painting

After: Relaxed boundary between subject and background; Subjects are part of a larger reality captured as if by chance

Thomas Eakins, The Swimming Hole, 1884-85

Eakins, Eakins's Students at the Site for Swimming,1884

Gustave Caillebotte, Paris: A Rainy Day, 1877. Oil on canvas, approx. 6’ 9” x 9’ 9”.

Edgar Degas, Frieze of Dancers, 1895

Marey, Chronophotographic study of Man Pole Vaulting, 1890 -1891

Other areas of influenceNewly invented motion picture machine, which took multiple photographs of moving figures at high shutter speeds

To study movement and gesture

Other areas of influence

Slow shutter speeds produce blurry moving figures

Monet began to smudge his painted figures similarly

Claude Monet, Rue Montorgueil, 1878

Critics say, “Black tongue lickings!”while others appreciated the “ant-like swarming… the instantaneity of movement”

Impressionism as a Reaction to Photography

Initially, photography seemed to pose a threat to the artist's ability to depict reality / nature through painting

Deficient and lacking in truth as compared to lifelike photographic images

But this ‘predicament’ turned out to be a source of inspiration for Impressionists

Instead of competing head-on with photography to emulate reality, Impressionists sought to express their subjective perceptions of nature

Encouraged painters to exploit aspects of the painting medium, like colour, which photography then lacked

“The Impressionists were the first to consciously offer a subjective alternative to the photograph."

Gustave Caillebotte, Paris: A Rainy Day, 1877. Oil on canvas, approx. 6’ 9” x 9’ 9”.

Stereographs! Human eyes are set some distance apart, so each eye sees an image slightly differently. If one takes two separate photographs the same distance apart, with a suitable stereoscopic viewer it is possible to recreate that illusion of depth.

Edward and Henry Anthony, Broadway on a Rainy Day, 1859

Stereographs to make you dizzy!

More stereographs!

Photography gave rise to a new way of representing reality for Western painters – while

Realists were interested in capturing the present, Impressionists sought to arrest the

moment.

“An image of magical instantaneity” - Edgar Degas