The Effect of Japanese Aesthetic on Edgar Degas' and Other's Work

The appropriation of other cultures in European art is a curiosity that has long attracted scholars. The introduction of non-western motifs into the European design vocabulary was equally novel and became an alternative to the historically based designs associated with various revivalist styles in the nineteenth century. Not only were non-western societies thought of as being untainted by industry and capitalism, but they were also perceived as morally superior and more devout than their European counterparts.

Japan’s effect of European decorative arts is especially interesting, and even more so due to the little acknowledgment of the influence that Japanese woodcuts had in French prints - a late nineteenth-century phenomenon in which the transfer of eastern technique to western means is notably clear. The period is rich in etchings, lithographs, and woodcuts steeped in Japonisme and many artists indulged in this richness to creates artworks that were teeming in depth of compositions, subject matters, colour palettes and perspectives.

In 1825 a tidal wave of foreign imports flooded European shores. On the crest of the said wave were woodcut prints by masters of the Ukiyo-e period, which transformed Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art by demonstrating that simple momentary, everyday subjects from “the floating world” could be presented in captivating decorative ways. The fascination for exotic styles was fuelled by the significant display of eastern art throughout many exhibitions, which in itself became more prominent from the 1850’s onward. Europeans were fully exposed to their first offical exhibition of Japanese arts when Japan took a place at the Worlds Fair in 1867. It is believed that Edouard Manet and Claude Monet were amongst the first to come across the Japanese prints in a Chinese tearoom near London Bridge and a spice shop respectively. Monet himself did draw influence from the exotic source and is perhaps the most recognisable of those that did, alongside Manet. Gauguin and van Gogh were also amongst the now commonly known artist and were part of those that insisted “Whatever one says, even the most vulgar Japanese sheets coloured in flat tones are, for the same reason, as admirable as Rubens and Veronese.”.

Others such as James Tissot and Edgar Degas were among the earliest collectors of Japanese art which in various ways lead tot heir own art being affected by exotic things in very different ways. Degas’ influence of Japanese art had a unique direction, unlike others, Degas avoided staging Japoneries that featured models dressed in kimono’s and the conspicuous display of Oriental props. Instead, Degas absorbed qualities of the aesthetic that he found most sympathetic. These include elongated pictorial formats, asymmetrical compositions, aerial perspective, spaces emptied of all but abstract elements of line and colour, and a focus on singularly decorative motifs. In this process, Degas redoubled his originality.

A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers (1865) is an example of the preferred aesthetic of Japanese art in Degas’ work. The unusual vantage points and asymmetrical framing are a consistent theme throughout his works, all of which resonate the foundations that Ukiyo-e woodcut prints installed. The figure is cut off at the right edge of the painting, with part of her left hand just barely visible at the lower right corner. The subdued attire seems almost incidental to the riot of colour that creates the floral arrangement. Visually comparing the influences offered against the traditional ideas is also explored in Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub (1885), the figure was criticised for its ungainly pose, as in the work a woman is shown to be squatting awkwardly in a tub, yet the steep perspective gives the work a solid, sculptural balance. The composition is very similar to how women are portrayed in the majority of Japanese prints and the influence is recognisable while maintaining traditional methods of art that Impressionism had.

More traditional works of Degas themselves embodied the influence of non-European cultures, Duchessa di Montejasi with Her Daughters, Elena and Camilla (1876) visually expresses the balance of homely, traditional methods and exotic influence. The lack of symmetrical balance comes from eastern influence while the strong sense of depth and pallets embody what foundations European art established. The pictorial format was amongst the aesthetics that Degas favoured from Japanese art, The strange amount of emptiness and separation for pieces like this leaves a sense of cultural connection when the audience is made aware of the initial influence, but when the knowledge isn’t shared, the piece has a strange composition to it with an overall odd balance - particularly for the time when pictorial formats and portraiture were establishing strong foundations as artistic styles themselves.

Experimentation with a range of pictorial modes, and with printmaking techniques as well, coincided with the growing popularity of Japanese woodcuts during the 1890s. Toulouse-Lautrec, for example, adopted the exaggerated colours, facial expressions and contours found in the Kabuki theatre prints in order to create his eye-catching posters. Others such as Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard, who referred to themselves as “Nadis” or “Prophets” of the new style of art, railed upon the piquant, unusual viewpoints of Ukiyo-e printmakers for inspiration.

Japan’s role in the development of the nineteenth century decorative arts can be compared to China’s holding of rococo. The influence the Japanese had over European art lead to Japanese ornament spawning the serpentine style of art nouveau, which grew into a powerful art movement that spanned through the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The popularity of bric-a-brac, fans, parasols, combs and textiles encouraged manufactured imitations, some grim - others sublime. The influence of woodcut, however, was felt on an entirely different level: The Paris studios of two generations of unknown painters were scattered with the bright, flat woodcuts of the Edo period that were to change the course of western pictorial art.

Though Japan did have a significant amount of influence over European artists during this time, other cultures made an impact that influenced movements in themselves. Publications of archaeological finds, for example, popularised the Egyptian style, which influenced those such as John Gardner Wilkinson’s in his publication Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (1837). This illustrated domestic furniture found at Thebes, leading to the influence of styling for chairs and other furniture made by artist-designers through the 1880s.

The complexities of geometric design associated with Islamic decorative arts and architecture became another source of inspiration. The importance of stylising forms inspired by nature was stressed by Owen Jones, a versatile architect and designer, and one of the most influential design theorists of the nineteenth century. He was unique in the influences he took from the Islamic world of design. The bold theories of geometry, colour and abstraction formed the basis for not only his work as a designer but also in his seminal publication, The Grammar of Ornament.

Throughout the nineteenth century, the arts of Japan and China were an inexhaustible source of design ideas. Chinoiserie, a pseudo-Chinese decorative style popularised in the late eighteenth century did reappear during the Regency architecture period, a short period of time in the early to mid-nineteenth century that resonated from the eighteenth centuries ‘Georgian architecture’, and continued into the nineteenth but was worn as the later part of the century drew in.

Following the opening of trade with Japan in 1854, the influence of Japanese arts resonated in nearly every media which makes it a very prominent and notable influence of the time. The simplicity of Japanese crafts, construction and design found favour amongst several important artists, as well as the Gothic revivalists - architect William Burgees called the Japanese display at the international exhibition of 1862 the “true medieval court”. The asymmetrical and abstract approach of Japanese design greatly affected the Aesthetic movement. By the close of the century, the exotic, as appropriated by the West, had become a mass-produced commodity in itself. It continued to influence the appearance of the decorative arts as it fused with the organic whiplash curves of the avant-garde style, known as Art Nouveau today.

Overall, the influences these exotic cultures had over European artists such as Degas and the others mentioned are impressively expressed through their individual works in a sublime manner. The balance each artist achieved through their own cultural influence and the exotic ides presented to them established a rich era of diversity in the nineteenth century.