Author Description

This lavishly illustrated book examines the profound influence of Japanese prints on the Impressionists and their American contemporaries. Richly illustrated throughout, this elegant volume introduces two hundred years of Japanese prints and examines their evolution, innovative techniques, and radical impact on the European and American avant-garde of the nineteenth century. The book commences with a chronological survey of the Japanese print, including works from early masters such as Harunobu and Utamaro, classic prints by the renowned artists Hokusai and Hiroshige, and nineteenth-century examples by Kunisada and Kuniyoshi. The second half of the book focuses on Western artists such as Pierre Bonnard, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Henri Rivière, Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler, who drew on the Japanese aesthetic in their own diverse ways. The result is a beautiful book that offers a fascinating glimpse of how the great Japanese prints affected modern art, from Impressionism and beyond.