KJCKorea
Journal Central

The first reason why Ukyo-e(the Japanese woodblock print) could captivate the european impressionists is its superior technique in color print that had been used one and half century ahead as a woodblock technique, which was not familiar with them. The second reason is that it was expressed with natural and loud colors made of natural pigments mainly from plants, which fascinated europeans. Lastly, the majority of Japanese woodblock prints introduced in Europe was mainly about a courtesan and an actor. Voyeurism, the expression technique used by Degas and Seurat who had been influenced by <The Figure of Girls’ Bathroom> by Kiyonaga, namely in the pictures of dancers in Degas’ and the circus in Seurat’s, appears on the canvas using deployment of both dynamic and silence elements in a way of common composition likewise in the Kabuki Picture, <the Figure of Tegatari〉by Kiyonaga. However, the picture of Kabuki by Kiyonaga about the stage of Kabuki-za and the seats used the western perspective drawing technique in a Japanese way to impose more stress and reinterpretation as an Uki-e. European expressionist art is more the result from the implantation of Japanese esthesia and art work rather than the reflection of Japanese pictorical expression. The title of <La Japonaise> by Monet is a good example. It shows an establishing element of Japanese hobby in color configuration on the canvas by portraying his wife, Camille Doncieux twisting her body in an S-shape like a courtesan in her reddish underwear. In other words, it seems to imply the meaning of both a Japanese curio and imitation of a figure of courtesan.

Japanese Color prints, Japanese woodblock prints, Uki-e, artist, Kiyonaga, Impressionists