Japanese art had a great influence on Western art in the mid to late nineteenth century in themes, subject matter, materials, and techniques. I will be looking at two American, expatriate artists living in London and Paris, James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) and Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), as examples of this Japanese artistic influence. Both were vanguard artists who took inspiration from Japanese prints after being introduced to such art. I have chosen these two artists because of the different ways Japanese ukiyo-e prints influenced their own work. As I will illustrate, Cassatt looked to specific sources of information in the 1890s. By contrast, Whistler is less chronologically localized. He used Japanese themes in many mediums from oil painting to printmaking, and Japonisme was stretched over the last quarter of the nineteenth century. For both artists, Japonisme exhibited itself in techniques and stylistic choices, such as the use of high angles, flat planes of color, bold outlines, and genre subject matter.
The Japanese influence in Europe began after 1853 when the American Commander Matthew Perry opened Japan to Western trade after it had been closed for hundreds of years.i The term Japonisme was coined by Philippe Burty in an issue of The Academy, a London review journal, on August 7, 1875.ii Woodblock printing consisted of a number of steps carried out by different people, with the named artist sometimes never coming in contact with the physical blocks of wood. It had been used in Japan since the eighth century and developed more detail in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.iii By the late 1700s, the technology for color woodblock prints had developed into a quicker process, which meant greater production, more sales, and better affordability.iv “These pictures could be made in great quantity and featured popular scenes that appealed in particular to the wealthy townspeople of the period.”v The popular scenes featured the floating world and genre scenes of everyday life, romance, and landscapes. This floating world was composed of the pleasure areas of Edo full of kabuki theater and geisha teahouses and sumo wrestling.vi Features that characterized these prints were mentioned above, with high angles and strongly outlined flat planes of color being the most noticeable. Several notable print masters made themselves known, such as Suzuki Haronobu, Katsushika Hokusai, and Utagawa Hiroshige; the masters’ prints were spread throughout the Western World and were influential on many artists, including the two presented here.vii These prints were introduced to Western artists through art dealers, shops, or exhibitions, as it was for Cassatt and Whistler.viii Whistler’s paintings Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Balcony (1864) and Variations in Flesh Colour and Green–The Balcony (1864-79) and Cassatt’s ten color prints showcase different manifestations of inspiration by Japonisme and the techniques the artists gleaned from ukiyo-e prints.
For an artist so taken by Japanese style, James McNeill Whistler never visited Japan in his life. He was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1834, and he lived abroad with his family until he returned to the United States for a short time. He moved to Paris in 1855 for art school and then moved again to London in 1859.ix This four-year time period is when he first encountered Japanese prints. There is no clear account of where he first saw them, with one being that he encountered them in a Chinese Tea Room near London Bridge.x Another is given by Karin Breuer, curator of the Achenbach Foundation at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, recounts Whistler’s discovery by saying:
[H]e was there in 1862 to see the London International Exhibition, which included a presentation of the Japanese art collection of Sir Rutherford Alcock, the first British consul general of Japan. It is widely thought that Whistler had discovered Japanese prints by then (he was an avid collector and frequented Parisian specialty shops).xi
Wherever it was that he was introduced to Japanese prints, the introduction would impact his artwork heavily for the next twenty years, from the 1860s to the 1880s. I will be examining three of his works from this period that illustrate his interest in Japonisme. These works are two oil paintings, Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen (1864) and Variations in Flesh Colour and Green – The Balcony (1864-70), and his print Old Battersea Bridge (1879). Each of these pieces shows the different ways ukiyo-e prints were influential to his work.xii As these pieces are chronologically ascending, his synthesis and assimilation of Japanese motifs can be followed as he further develops his oeuvre.
Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen is one of Whistler’s first works with an extreme use of Japanese objects. This painting is not arranged in imitation of ukiyo-e prints, and there is no distinct influence from any specific Japanese prints. In fact, the composition of the piece is reminiscent of the Kunstkammer or the Cabinet of Curiosity. Whistler has displayed his collection of oriental pieces throughout his painting, including ones from beyond Japan.xiii His model, Joanna Hiffernan, is dressed in a heavily embroidered kimono of red, white, purple, and pink, which is lavishly spread about her. She rests on a Near Eastern rug, and in the front far left corner is a blue and white vase, likely Chinese or Japanese, holding some purple and pink flowers. Behind her encompassing the background is a golden screen. To finish off his expanse of objects, at least six ukiyo-e prints are spread on the floor before Joanna, who contemplates another one in her hand. No less than two of these prints have been identified as part of the series by Hiroshige, Famous Places in Sixty-odd Provinces [in Japan].xiv His reproductions of the prints are rough and abstract, but they are accurate and can be identified. The top print in the scattering on the floor is Ôsumi Province/ Sakura shima (Ôsumi, Sakura shima) (fig. 2) while the one held in her hand is Iyo Province/ Saijô (Iyo, Saijô) (fig. 3).
The importance of this piece lies not in its similarity to any specific ukiyo-e print or printmaker. Rather, it shows the influence that Japanese and oriental artifacts began to have on artists. By the time of the painting in 1864, Whistler had collected all these items and likely more. He had similar oil paintings from the mid-1860s that also showcased a variety of objects and garments, but Caprice in Purple and Gold is unique due to its exhibition of oriental objects. There is no synthesis, no blending with Western composition. The woman is distinctly Western, with red hair, pale skin, and no Orientalizing features about her. The spread of objects is truly that, a spread. The presentation here is meant for display, with the use of pastiche to help place the objects within the setting. This painting also helps to establish a firm connection to Hiroshige, who remained an influence on Whistler’s paintings and prints while he was enraptured with Japonisme.
Whistler’s Variations in Flesh Colour and Green-The Balcony (fig. 4) is an oil on wood panel painted between 1864 and 1870 with later additions made in the 1870s. This painting depicts four women lounging on a balcony. The teal balcony covers the majority of the foreground, and it overlooks a drab, grey river with the background landscape a setting of abstract factories and mountainous shapes. The four women visible in the painting are Western in complexion and features but dressed in kimonos of different colors and degrees of formality. The woman furthest to the left in the painting lounges on a bright purple object; she obscures it too much for it to be clearly identified. Her kimono is a fleshy color, and her face is unrecognizable. Before her is a black lacquered tray with two white cups and a white jar; this is likely a partial tea set, as tea ceremonies were esteemed events held on regular occasions in Japan. In fact, an ukiyo-e print may have inspired Whistler to depict a teahouse. The second woman from the left is in a black kimono with a red datejime or an obi and light brush strokes giving the appearance of golden embroidery.xv She looks out over the river, turned away from the viewer. The third woman from the left is wearing a blue kimono with a white undergarment patterned with flowers. She faces the viewer and is poised to play a shamisen. To her right and on the right edge of the canvas is the fourth woman, who wears a green kimono. Beyond her torso and head, not much of her body can be seen, as Whistler abruptly crops the painting. This cut-off is seen in the immediate foreground as well, with pink flowers that have no point of origin. This abrupt cropping style can often be found in ukiyo-e prints to help provide a sense of floating and displacement from the setting.
The ukiyo-e print that may have inspired Whistler is Teahouse in Shinagawa (fig. 5) by Torii Kiyonaga. It is a diptych that was printed around 1783, and it has a scene very similar to Whistler’s painting. In Kiyonaga’s setting seven women are gathered dressed in a variety of kimonos; behind them is a water scene, and many objects overlap. There is a full tea set in Kiyonaga’s print including a small, black pot; this is unsurprising considering the setting is a teahouse. The women are dressed in kimonos with varying patterns and degrees of complexity. Kiyonaga uses close framing in his piece, as Whistler did. The other prominent objects are the two shamisen visible in Teahouse. Whistler compiled elements of this print and repurposed them in a Western setting. Klaus Berger, a German art historian and professor at the University of Kansas, noted the similarity between Teahouse and Variations in Flesh Colour and Green: “The pictorial idea is a piece of free reinterpretation. The totally surface-bound treatment is accompanied by unified and simplified outlines…The foreground drops away abruptly, and the flower arrangement has been denaturalized almost into an ornament.”xvi Berger only uses half of Kiyonaga’s diptych print in his comparison to Whistler. However, both sides of the diptych are needed to show the comparison and inspiration to its fullest.
It is clear that Whistler took inspiration from this print for his painting in setting, objects, and techniques. Yet, Variations in Flesh Colour and Green has a greater impact than merely being an example of Japonisme in action. Here, Whistler has moved beyond a display of oriental objects closer to a total synthesis of Western and Japanese styles. Variations in Flesh Colour and Green showcases a setting that has hallmarks indicating the Japanese inspiration of distant mountains while simultaneously providing the industrial landscape so familiar to Londoners. This painting is also Whistler’s first use of his trademark butterfly insignia.xvii It is more apt to call it his butterfly inkan; inkan are the equivalent of signatures in Japan, which Whistler adopted for the practice of his own signature. Though Japanese artists typically used multiple kanji characters as their signature, Whistler took the idea of a symbol as a signature and used it throughout the rest of his career. This inkan of Whistler’s is another example pointing towards his integration of Japanese objects and techniques. He used flat planes of color and close cropping, along with compositional motifs and techniques, to create this union of Japanese and Western styles and subjects. It is not yet perfect, but he would develop this synthesis with time.
Old Battersea Bridge (1879) (fig. 6) is an example of that synthesis coming to fruition. As a departure from oil paintings, it is an etching and drypoint printed in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper. It depicts the old wooden bridge between Chelsea and Battersea that stretches across the Thames River. The bridge was one he had previously painted in 1872. The detail and hatching Whistler used in this print to create the shadow and structure of the bridge are very fine. The wooden slats of the bridge are easily distinguished and provide a characterization that is fitting for a Japanese bridge. Over twenty figures can be seen walking over and standing on the bridge, each one a distinct individual. Some are merely strolling across, while others lean over the railing. On the right side of the bridge, one figure even appears to be sitting on the railing, though perhaps it is merely a very tall person. Whistler is so precise in his etching that the poses of various figures can be made out: a horse and cart are on the far left, some small children chase each other on the right, and a few fishing poles and umbrellas can be spotted. In the background there are some rough buildings, which would seem to help ground the bridge in its setting so that it does not merely float. But the floating effect is still achieved due to the very empty foreground. Passing beneath the center of the bridge is a small boat with an open sail, and its rectangle shape is reminiscent of the Japanese maruko-bune. The sail is angled in such a way as to evoke this idea, namely creating a full rectangle. This potential allusion becomes more recognizable upon comparing it to Japanese prints, such as Hokusai’s At Sea off Kazusa (Kazusa no kairo), from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei) (1830) (fig. 7). The ships in Hokusai’s print have a similar sail as Whistler’s boat. Whistler reimagined this British river embankment as a Japanese bridge. His synthesis here is more fully realized as he takes inspiration and techniques from various ukiyo-e prints, three of which are given here as examples from different authors.
Breuer compares Whistler’s Battersea print to Utagawa Hiroshige’s Nihon Bridge and Edo Bridge (Nihonbashi, Edobashi), from the 1857 series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei) (fig. 8). She says, “with its low viewpoint and the deliberate wiping of the etching plate to suggest bokashi, the Japanese technique of showing graduation of color in the sky and water, the treatment is especially Japanese.”xviii The graduation or tonal atmospheric quality in Whistler is very light, but we can see it faintly in the water and in the sky. And though the Battersea bridge itself may have been wood, Whistler’s seems to have pulled it directly from an ukiyo-e print. The angle of the bridge is what truly places the piece in a Japanese setting. Jacques Dufwa, who wrote on the subject for his dissertation at the University of Stockholm, provides a different print, also by Hiroshige, as a second comparison that expands on the angle of the Battersea Bridge in relation to Japanese depictions.
Dufwa was comparing this second Hiroshige print to a painting of Battersea Bridge done by Whistler, where he put the bridge at a lower and more vertical angle. However, the print Dufwa provides helps to establish the Japanese style in which Whistler etched the bridge. Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake (Ōhashi Atake no yūdachi), another print by Hiroshige from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei) (fig. 9) provides a close look at a Japanese bridge in a print; though there is no hatching like Whistler has, both bridges are closely related in their structure and the interesting angles at which they are displayed. The Shin-Ōhashi Bridge is shown from a high angle and the Battersea Bridge at a low one; both of these angles are extreme, though Whistler’s is less so. Both prints share more than just a bridge, as both show a single boat and a scattering of people crossing the bridges.xix
A third and final comparison I looked at is made by Ono Ayako, an associate professor at Shinshu University specializing in Japonisme. She compared Battersea Bridge to yet another of Hiroshige’s prints. Bamboo Yards, Kyobashi Bridge, No. 76 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (fig. 10) was made as part of his same Edo series. Here, Hiroshige shows a single boat floating underneath a bridge traversed by people. Unlike Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge, this view of Kyobashi Bridge has a more level perspective and appears closer to Whistler’s bridge in terms of angles of vision. And Ono notes that both Whistler and Hiroshige were showing places that were well known and easily recognized.xx It is interesting to note that technically these three Japanese prints are all vertical. Whistler did not produce exclusively horizontal prints, but his etching work for Battersea Bridge is done horizontally. This allowed him to capture more of the bridge while still allowing for cropping and a disconnected, floating effect. Whistler progressed from a display of oriental objects in Western setting to a subtle transformation of a Western setting into a Japanese scene. He fully assimilated the techniques and motifs of ukiyo-e prints and Japonisme into his style at this point in his career.
Whistler’s Japanese influence was slowly built up over a span of years and came across strongly in his work. By contrast, Mary Cassatt learned of Japonisme later and was not as subtle with her inspiration and learned techniques. She was another American artist who was exposed to Japonisme in Europe. Born in what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1844, she lived in France and Germany when she was young. After studying art in Pittsburgh and Italy, she eventually made her way to France in 1874, where she worked with the Impressionists.xxi There she was introduced to Japanese ukiyo-e prints at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris during the spring of 1890. In a letter to Berthe Morisot, she expressed her excitement and enthusiasm at the exhibition,
…afterwards we could go see the Japanese prints at the Beaux-Arts. Seriously, you must not miss that. You who want to make color prints you couldn’t dream of anything more beautiful. I dream of it and don’t think of anything else but color on copper… P.S. You must see the Japanese–come as soon as you can.xxii
Cassatt was already a vanguard and experimental printmaker, having been influenced by the Impressionists, especially Degas. Many of the Impressionists were similarly enraptured with this wave of Japanese art. This exhibition helped fuel the experimentation in her printmaking.
After seeing this exhibition, she made a set of ten color prints, of which I will be looking at three.xxiii This series of ten color prints was created in 1890 specifically to admire and draw inspiration and influence from Japanese subjects, compositions, and technical innovations.xxiv Cassatt explicitly stated this in a letter to Frank Weitenkampf on May 18, 1906, writing that “the set of ten plates was done with the intention of attempting an imitation of Japanese methods.”xxv All of the ten color prints exhibit hallmarks of Japanese inspiration, as noted by many authors, but I will focus on three final states of the prints that each exemplify unique aspects of ukiyo-e prints in their style and Cassatt’s use of Japanese motifs. These three prints are The Bath, The Letter, and The Coiffure. Each print shows Cassatt’s interest in portraying women in her work and shows women in different genre settings. Along with describing the prints themselves, I will be examining and comparing the scholarship on these prints by leading scholars on Cassatt and Japonisme: Nancy Mowll Mathews, Barbara Stern Shapiro, Colta Feller Ives, and Karin Breuer.
Looking first at The Bath (fig. 11), this portrays a mother and a child. This subject matter was a favorite of Cassatt’s, as she often portrayed women and children. A mother holds her small, naked child by the torso as she crouches next to a tub of water. The mother wears a bright yellow dress with little black flowers patterned on it. She holds the child, who seems to squirm a bit, in one arm. The child’s body is slightly twisted, as if trying to escape while the mother tests the temperature of the water in the tub. The tub is blue, and the water ripples as her hand dips beneath the surface. The water seems opaque, at least from this angle, as her hand cannot be seen where it has dipped below the surface. There is no scenery in the background, middleground, or foreground beyond a simple line to indicate the transition from floor to wall. The floating and disconnectedness of ukiyo-e is easily achieved in this setting of nothingness. The background is left blank, putting the focus entirely on the mother and child.
The connection to Japanese prints is not obvious at first, given that this subject is not inherently Japanese. Returning to Cassatt’s letter to Weitenkampf sheds light on what makes this print so unique. Later in that letter, Cassatt says that she abandoned the effort of pure imitation after this first plate.xxvi The Bath is therefore the only one that imitates ukiyo-e prints directly. Colta Feller Ives, who was curator of prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, makes a connection between a well-known Japanese printmaker and this subject: “[Kitagawa] Utamaro’s intimate treatment of motherly love immediately endeared his art to Cassatt. No artist of the Ukiyo-e school handled scenes of parent/child relationship more sympathetically than he.”xxvii Ives notes that Cassatt’s collection of Japanese prints was auctioned, and several prints by Utamaro were identified.xxviii Given Utamaro’s popularity, it is not surprising that she had his works in her collection. Cassatt’s attraction to him makes sense considering that he also helped popularize a genre of scenes that she would have found interesting. Barbara Stern Shapiro notes well Utamaro’s influence on Cassatt. She says,
Although it is known that Cassatt collected woodcuts by many of the favored Japanese artists, it was to the subjects and style of Utamaro that she most subscribed. Cassatt appropriated the theme of mother and child, which had been treated with affection by Utamaro and popularized by him as a genre in Japanese art.xxix
The Utamaro print that Ives offers for comparison to Cassatt’s The Bath is Bathtime (Gyōzui), printed around 1801 (fig. 12). Here, the child is in the tub already, a wooden one, and he seems to be causing difficulties for his mother. The mother is also leaning over the tub, though she is taking a more active role in the bathing. The water is clear as the figure of the child can be fully seen while he sits in the tub. There is more detail in Utamaro’s prints overall. The tub is made of wooden slats and is bound with rope. The little boy holds a toy in his hand, and the mother has an intricate hairstyle. The most interesting difference is the background, which remains blank. The only addition is a piece of clothing in the top right corner, which seems to blow in an unseen breeze.
The poses and setting of the two scenes are very similar. There is a slight difference that illustrates the cultural influence that Cassatt showed in her prints. The child in her print, though squirming, seems better behaved than Utamaro’s child. Ives says about this, “However receptive she was to Utamaro’s sincerity, Cassatt always maintained the fine-bred reserve that kept her subject matter within accepted bounds and her children, unlike Utamaro’s, well behaved.” xxx There is also slightly more modesty in Cassatt’s The Bath. The child faces away from the viewer, leaving its gender ambiguous. Utamaro does not leave that question unanswered, as his child is facing the viewer and can be seen through the water. Klaus Berger also compared Cassatt’s print to Utamaro’s: “In every gesture, every expression, every nuance of mood, the Japanese setting is transformed into a characteristically Western scene.”xxxi Cassatt has taken a scene, like Whistler did with Battersea Bridge, and Westernized it. The dress, the hairstyle, and the tub of The Bath are distinctly Western in style, with no kimonos or hair pins involved. However, she has imitated closely the composition and motifs of Utamaro in his print, which has provided a setting and style in which to place her subjects. Berger’s summation of her style can be seen in the other ten color prints as well, though there is a distinct shift into a more Western style.
The second print by Cassatt is The Coiffure (fig. 13). A woman is seated on some kind of red and white striped chair. She is in front of a large mirror and is half nude with either a white skirt, sheet, or towel covering her lower half. Her arms are raised up and adjusting her hair or coiffure, as the title implies. The chair, carpet, and wall all have coloring of red and pink tones; both the wall and the floor are patterned with flowers. The perspective of the mirror alters the focus of the print. Using mirrors was a popular Japanese technique to achieve different and unique angles. Here, it achieves a downward angle as the woman leans forward. It also creates the juxtaposition of seeing the woman’s front while her back faces the viewer. Ives observes this mirror motif as a favorite of Utamaro’s and that it was frequently depicted with women at their toilettes.xxxii
Shapiro notes the inspiration Cassatt took from her own collection of Japanese prints; both Ives and Shapiro point to a specific work by Utamaro, also from approximately 1795, that belonged to Cassatt. This Utamaro print is titled Takashima Ohisa Using Two Mirrors to Observe Her Coiffure: Night of the Asakusa Marketing Festival (fig. 14), and it is more grounded in a real setting than the other two works of Utamaro referenced in this paper. The woman in Utamaro’s Takashima Ohisa is sitting on the floor next to a low table with a window shade visible and a print of a snake and a dancing man on the wall. The mirrors she is using are both handhelds, and only her face is visible in the front one held by her left hand. The angle created is certainly unusual and is stranger than Cassatt’s angle. The woman in Utamaro’s print is fully covered in a beautiful blue patterned kimono in contrast to Cassatt’s half nude figure. Shapiro gives another Utamaro as a possible reference for Cassatt. Kintaro Arranging Yamauba’s Hair (ca. 1795) (fig. 15) involves two figures, but the use of the woman’s nudity is what allows this comparison.xxxiii
Another ukiyo-e print that may have been a potential inspiration for Cassatt, by Nishikawa Sukenobu, is titled A Woman, Naked to the Waist, Dressing Her Hair Before a Mirror Stand (1739) (fig. 16). This print illustrates nudity in Japanese works and can show more than just Utamaro’s influence on Cassatt. The girl faces forward, and is nude from the waist up, just as Cassatt’s woman is. She is also fixing her hair in a similar manner to Cassatt’s woman since she is not using a handheld mirror. Though she does not have an almost full length mirror as in The Coiffure, her mirror rests on a stand before her, allowing the use of both her arms to comb or pick at her hair. The angle of her body is similar to Cassatt’s woman, though Nishikawa presents a frontal view. The nudity and draping of the kimono around her waist draws a parallel to Cassatt’s The Coiffure.
The third print of Cassatt’s, The Letter (fig. 17), is a shift from The Bath. This print is detailed and full of patterns, which are some of the most noticeable features in this print. A woman sits at a brown desk with her face downturned as she licks an envelope to seal it. She herself is rather unassuming, but her matching jacket and skirt are a deep blue with some kind of pattern on it that almost appears to be a lyre. She also wears a pale pink shirt underneath her outfit. On the desk in front of her lies some paper, either another letter or empty sheets. The desktop is the same color as her dress. Behind her, the walls are not blank; they are designed with a pattern of some kind of peach-colored flower.
This print comes in sharp contrast to the stark nothingness of The Bath’s background and foreground. Cassatt has filled the space here, especially with the use of cropping and high angles, which allows for a less floating feeling while still creating a sense of displacement. There is also progress in Cassatt’s printing technique. Though Cassatt’s prints were made at the same time, small details such as the woman’s hair are more noticeable; the texture of the letter, the grain of the wood, and the use of colors are an improvement from The Bath. A Japanese connection can once again be drawn to an Utamaro print. Ives presents another print of his, this one from around 1795, titled Hinazuru of the Keizetsuro, from the series Comparing the Charms of Beauties (Bijin kiryo kurabe) (Keizetsuro Hinazuru) (fig. 14). The figure is angled in the same way as Cassatt’s, looking from a slight height. This angle is emphasized by the downturned face of the woman. In her mouth, there is either a piece of paper or a piece of cloth, but it is held there without aid from her hands. Cassatt employed this pose while still maintaining a European elegance by having her woman use her hands. However, there is something Japanese in the woman’s face; her thicker eyebrows and her hair contribute to this, along with the downward gaze of her eyes. Utamaro’s woman has hair that is filled with decorations, apparently pins of some kind. Though her dress is more purple in color than blue, there is a pink layer underneath, similar to Cassatt’s pink layer. Ives comments on Cassatt’s use of color: “Utamaro’s luscious hues, the ‘peachblossom pink,’ ‘sky blue,’ ‘honey yellow,’ and ‘tea green’ became her colors too. There is always a suggestion of oriental modesty in her models’ downward gazes as well.”xxxiv
Here, the backgrounds of the two prints contrast. Cassatt has filled the scene with colors and patterns and an object. The only blank spaces to be found are the papers for the letters; everything else is colored in. Utamaro maintains his blank background. There is a sense of floating characteristic of ukiyo-e prints to his work due to their lack of grounding in a defined setting. Cassatt’s prints are more grounded in her use of patterns and furniture. She fills the space, but the angles and abrupt cut-off of objects show another aspect of Japanese influence in her work. This perfectly illustrates how she incorporated Japanese techniques and compositional motifs into her work while maintaining a distinct Western setting and subject that she already favored. Cassatt did not aim for the assimilation of Whistler, but she did achieve a synthesis of techniques in her prints that showcase her prowess as a vanguard printmaker.
This paper addressed the question of how Japonisme was used in art and then later assimilated. This was not a comprehensive examination; only three pieces from each artists’ oeuvre were chosen, yet each exhibited this influence and inspiration clearly. Whistler focused on Japonisme for about twenty years, from the 1860s to the early 1890s. After this, his influence was based more in the Dutch artists with Japanese style appearing less frequently and with less conspicuousness. While he was captivated by Japonisme, Whistler developed his style to best blend with the techniques and motifs of ukiyo-e prints and Japonisme, even going so far as to change his signature. Cassatt focused on Japonisme for an even shorter time. After her production of the ten color prints, she drifted further away from a distinct Japanese inspiration and influence. In the ten color prints series, she was self-conscious in her decisions and her choice of motifs. Her inspiration and imitation were without doubt. Yet, she too added motifs of ukiyo-e to her personal style. Her later prints and artworks carried over some of these motifs such as stronger outlines and flat planes of color, so the direct connection to the Japanese prints she had been so taken with in the 1890s is evident in these works as well. For both Whistler and Cassatt, these later uses may have been intentional or not, but they remained. This investigation of the two artists helps to establish the ways in which Japonisme influenced Western art at its height along with providing insight into its later appearances. Japonisme and ukiyo-e prints left a mark on the Europe and America that can be seen to this very day, as once again the great wave of Asian culture sweeps across the Western world.
