Japanese Prints and the Impressionists

Paper Summary:

This paper explores the influence of Japanese wood-block prints on Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting. The writer introduces the evolution of wood-block printing in Japan and its distinctive form, technique and style of drawing that attracted the impressionists. This is followed by a listing of artists who were exposed to these prints and how they affected their works. These artists include Degas, Pissarro, Cassatt, Renoir, Morisot, and Manet among others.

From the Paper:

"This type of printing changed during time, and the works that we see today and also the ones the impressionist saw were the end product of a long evolution. "Printmaking is composed of the division of labour of many craftsmen, such as painters, engravers and printers, and needs at least the same number of different woodblocks as colours, often more than twenty wood-blocks. At first, there was just a one colour woodblock prints with brush-added colour in the 1710s, then two or three colours wood-block prints evolved in the 1740s, and finally in the 1760s the multi-colour wood-block prints called "nishiki-e" (brocade picture) was invented and continued to the early Meiji period in 1890s." "

Sample of Sources Used:

• http://www.artelino.com/articles/van_gogh_japonisme.asp
• http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/jpon/hd_jpon.htm- Colta Ives, Curator, Drawings and Prints
• http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gauguin/sermon/ -Nicolas Pioch, article on
• http://spaightwoodgalleries.com/Pages/ImpPostImp_2002.html
• http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Arts/Graphicartists/generalities/Historyofprintmaking.htm

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