Impressionists and Japan: Art Between East and West. A Story of Passion

A captivating study of how Japanese aesthetics helped the Impressionists see the world around them in a new way.

For more than two centuries, Japan remained closed to the outside world, and only in the mid-19th century did the West rediscover the Land of the Rising Sun. From that moment, a new chapter began in relations between Japan and European states, especially vividly expressed in the arts.

At the World’s Fairs in London and Paris, the Japanese pavilion with engravings and objects of decorative and applied art caused a sensation. In the second half of the 19th century, almost all Impressionists were captivated by the laconic elegance and refinement of the Japanese style. Eastern aesthetics, entering Western perception through the visual arts, changed the very approach to artistic thinking: important things began to be found in everyday life—in raindrops, in the falling cherry blossoms, in the light of sunsets.

The book “Impressionism and Japan. Art Between East and West: The Story of One Passion” tells of the mutual influence of Eastern and Western cultures, the phenomenon of European and American fascination with Japan—from the mid-19th century to today.