Tanaka, Hidemichi. “Cézanne and ‘Japonisme’.” Artibus et Historiae , 2001, Vol. 22, No. 44 (2001), pp. 201-220. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1483720.
This reading discusses the influences of Japanese art and the “Japonisme” movement on the works of the French impressionist Paul Cezanne. Tanaka directly compares Cezanne’s compositional styles, some of which were uncommon in European art, to those of Japanese ukiyo-e printers like Hiroshige, and also notes the influences of other Japanese-inspired European artists on his works. By examining the influences on one artist who was deeply involved in various European art movements, the work connects the fascination of 19th century European artists with Japanese art to the development of new styles of Western art that mimicked many of the natural forms, compositional features, and subjects of Japanese art.
Tanaka points out that Cezanne’s mentor and role model, Pissarro and Monet respectively, were both themselves influenced by Japanese art, and that Cezanne was an avid reader of books on Japanese art by de Goncourt and Zola, even painting several Japanese artifacts in Zola’s private collection, proving that he took an interest in them. Around the time that Cezanne attended an exhibition of Japanese sumi-e (ink paintings) in Paris, his own style underwent a major change in favor of the expression of surface without contour lines, which matches the style used in Watanabe Seitei’s brush sketches that were at the exhibition. He is quoted as having approved of the appreciation of nature he saw in Japanese art, while also being critical of the use of contour lines in ukiyo-e. This, again, is reflected in his work, which shows many similar natural forms to those in woodcut prints by Hiroshige and Hokusai, but without the sharp contour lines, showing that he may have adapted Japanese techniques to his own tastes.
The author supplements Cezanne’s clear interest in Japanese art with direct visual comparisons between Cezanne’s pieces and those of his Japanese contemporaries. Cezanne’s “ruthless simplification of form” is reminiscent of Hokusai’s teachings in his “A Quick Guide to Drawing” that all forms are composed of circles and squares, and this can be observed by directly comparing the styles of form simplification in the pieces of both respective artists. His 36 views of Mont Sainte-Victoire are likely a direct response to Hokusai’s “36 Views of Mt. Fuji,” and in many of Cezanne’s 36, the compositions are entirely inaccurate to the actual view he would have had, instead seeming to be taken directly from Hokusai’s prints. Comparing some of their respective pieces side by side, Cezanne may as well have just erased the contour lines and switched out the mountain, as the composition, use of color, and even the ukiyo-e-style exaggeration of natural forms like trees are remarkably similar between the two artists, while being nothing like most of the Western art to which Cezanne would have been used. Cezanne’s apparent passion for framing and even shrouding his landscapes with trees also seems to come from ukiyo-e, with similar styles found in the works of both Hokusai and Hiroshige.
I think Tanaka makes a convincing argument, both with his knowledge of Cezanne’s life, influences, and interests, and with his direct visual comparison and analysis. It is clear that Cezanne’s work represents a mixing of Japanese and European impressionist styles.
