The Influence Of The Far East

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

Japanese Color-prints And The Art of Whistler

1

To attempt any historical survey of the art of the East is beyond the scope of this Outline, but since several of the most distinguished Western painters of the nineteenth century were profoundly influenced by the art of China and Japan, it is necessary to make some brief mention of the wonderful art of the Far East and to record the genesis of its appreciation in Europe in order that we may perceive the part it played in shaping the style of certain modern masters.

Painting in water-colors on silk, or less often on paper, was practised in China from the earliest years of the Christian era. One of the oldest Chinese pictures known to exist is a scroll-painting called ‘Admonitions of the Instructress’ in the British Museum. This has been pronounced by experts to be a work of the fourth century, but has none of the characteristics of a primitive work executed when an art is in its infancy. The mastery of natural attitude and of the relation of figures to each other and the delicate expressiveness of the drawing prove that behind the art which produced it is a long history of development.

Chinese painting attained its highest excellence during the Sung Dynasty, i.e approximately between A.D 950 and 1250, and to this period belongs the masterly painting of ‘Two Geese’ in the British Museum. The exquisitely refined drawing and simple naturalism in this dignified bird painting show the high state of civilization in China at a time when Europe was only painfully emerging from the Dark Ages. We have only to turn back to the first chapter of this work and to compare the paintings of Cimabue or of Giotto with this still earlier picture from the East, to realize how superior was the naturalism of the Chinese artist to that of the most gifted of the earliest Europen painters. The art of the Sung period excelled in landscape and animal painting, and it was ‘inspired a mystical feeling for Nature (akin to that expressed by Wordsworth’s poetry) which gives a serious beauty to its treatment of simple or seemingly insignificant subjects.’

It is only in quite recent times, however, that Western artists have been attracted by the nobility of early Chinese art. In the nineteenth century Chinese paintings were scarce and little known in Europe, and the first examples of Oriental art made familiar to Europe were color prints from Japan. Though te Japanese today have a deservedly high reputation as an artistic nation, China was their intructress in all the arts. The art of printing in colors from a number of wood blocks in succession was practised in China in the seventeenth century, perhaps earlier, but it was not till the eighteenth century that it flourished in Japan. In that country the demand for a popular art had fostered a school of painting devoted to themes of daily life, and the woodcut provided a cheap means of multiplying designs. At first, in the early part of the eighteenth century, these woodcuts were colored by hand, then prints were made in two colors, rose-red and green, and in 1764 the first full-colored prints, known as ‘brocade prints,’ were issued. Harunobu (1705-72) was the first master to use te new invention, which during the next hundred years was to produce the most beautiful examples of color printing that the world has seen.

From the time of Harunobu to the death of Utamaro in 1806, a succession of artists poured forth a series of these popular pictures, which were sold for the merest trifle, chiefly to the working classes of Japan. The painters of Japan catered for aristocratic tastes and were patronized by the wealthy and eminent, but the makers of color-prints were democratic both in origin and aim and were regarded socially as artisans rather than artists. The aristocratic painters of Japan, like those of China, were symbolists, whose work conveyed subtle allusions to educated Orientals; but the designers of color prints were realists, who rendered the common life of everyday people. Among the Japanese this art, despised by the higher classes, was named the ‘Mirror of the Passing World.’ With the common people of Japan the drama was an overwhelming passion, and consequently the subjects of innumerablle color prints are taken from the stage, which provided endless themes. In all the earlier Japanese color prints figures predominate, but after the death of Utamaro a great artist arose in Hokusai (1760-1849), who invented a new landscape style. Hokusai was followed by other great landscape artists, Hiroshige (1796-1858) and his successor Hiroshige II, who worked c. 1840-65, and the splendid landscape designs by these artists were the first to make their influence felt in Europe.

The Influence Of The Far East (continued)