Japanism

First described by French art critic and collector, Philippe Burty in 1872, Japonism, from the French Japonisme, is the study of Japanese art and artistic talent. Japonism affected fine arts, sculpture, architecture, performing arts and decorative arts throughout Western culture. The term is used particularly to refer to Japanese influence on European art, especially in impressionism.

From the 1860s, ukiyo-e, Japanese woodblock prints, became a source of inspiration for many Western artists. Ukiyo-e began as a Japanese painting school developed in the 17th century. Ukiyo-e woodblock prints were created to fit a demand for inexpensive, souvenir images. Although the prints were inexpensive, they were innovative and technical which gave each one value. These prints were rarely created with a single patron in mind, rather they were created for the commercial market in Japan. Although a percentage of prints were brought to the West through Dutch trade merchants, it was not until the 1860s when ukiyo-e prints gained popularity in Europe. Western artists were intrigued by the original use of color and composition. Ukiyo-e prints featured dramatic foreshortening and asymmetrical compositions.

During the Edo period (1639-1858), Japan was in a period of seclusion and only one International port remained active.Tokugawa Iemitsu, ordered that an island, Deshima, be built off the shores of Nagasaki from which Japan could receive imports. The Dutch were the only country able to engage in trade with the Japanese, however, this small amount of contact still allowed for Japanese art to influence the West. Every year the Dutch arrived in Japan with fleets of ships filled with Western goods for trade. In the cargoes arrived many Dutch treatises on painting and a number of Dutch prints.Shiba Kōkan (1747-1818) was one of the notable Japanese artists that studied the Dutch imports.Kōkan created one of the first etchings in Japan which was a technique he had learned from one of the imported treatises.Kōkan would combine the technique of linear perspective, which he learned from a treatise, with his own ukiyo-e styled paintings.

...
Wikipedia