Introduction
Waterlilies by Claude Monet is perhaps the most treasured painting in the Portland Art Museum’s collection. Now, after more than 65 years, it finally looks much as the artist intended- without varnish- thanks to the detailed conservation treatment that resulted in new color harmonies and luminosity. To celebrate the painting’s restoration and the campus transformation project, this beloved icon is presented alongside a selection of works to provide historical context.
Monet and his fellow Impressionists were fascinated by Japanese “floating world” prints, called ukiyo-e, which had only been available in Europe and the United States for a few decades yet transformed the way artists looked at the world. Artists introduced new concepts of beauty and new ways of approaching both subject and composition that decentered the European tradition. In this exhibition, we invite you to rediscover Monet’s canvas, explore the Japanese prints that inspired him, and examine how other European and American artists experimented with japonisme to create beauty and startlingly new compositions.
-Co-organized by
Charlotte Ameringer Chief Conservator
Mary Weaver Chapin, Ph.D. Curator of Prints and Drawings
Lloyd DeWitt, Ph.D., Richard and Janet Geary Curator of European and American Art Pre-1930
Jeannie Kenmotsu, Ph.D., Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Art
Generous support provided by Ann Flowerree.
All exhibitions at the Portland Art Museum are underwritten by the Exhibition Series fund.
Major annual support is provided by May and Ryan Finley, William G. Gilmore Foundation, Mary and Pete Mark Family Foundation, Laura and Roger Meier Family, James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, State of Oregon, City of Portland, Oregon Community Foundation, and Business Oregon
Bloomberg Connects Audio Guide 100
Timeline
1840
Claude Monet is born in Paris
1845
The monet family moves to Le Havre, where eventually Claude meets artist Eugène Boudin who worked outside, directly from nature, and became a key influence for Monet and the Impressionists
1860
Monet studies art in Paris and meets artist Camille Pissarro
Étienne Carjat, Photo of Claude Monet, 1864
1860-61
Monet joins the military and serves in Algeria
1869
Monet leaves Paris for Bougival, ten miles west of Paris, and suffers financial difficulties despite successes at the Salon
1870
Monet marries Camille Doncieuz, mother of their sons, Jean and Michel, and the family leaves for London during the Franco-Prussian War
1871-72
Monet visits Holland, where he apparently acquired his first Japanese prints, and upon return to France settles in suburban Argenteuil
1874
The first of the eight Impressionist exhibitions is held, where Monet’s Impression, Sunrise is mocked in the press, but the artists use this publicity to giver their movement its name
1876
The second Impressionist exhibition is held, where Monet exhibits La Japonaise, a portrait of his wife, Camille, in Japanese attire surrounded by Japanese fans
Claude Monet, La Japonaise (Camille Doncieux), 1876, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
1879
Camille dies of tuberculosis shortly after the family joins the Émile and Alice Hoschedé household in Vétheuil, 30 miles down the Seine River from Argenteuil, for financial reasons
1881
Influential art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel first purchases Monet’s work, and his connections to American buyers prove the salvation of the Impressionists, who were struggling financially
1883
Monet moves to Giverny, ten miles down the Seine River from Vetheuil and in the coastal département of Normandy, where he rents the house he will later buy and starts building Norman-style enclosed gardens
1889
Monet sees the new, colorful hybrid water lilies at the Paris Exposition, cultivated by Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac, and would later buy these from Latour-Marliac when his pond was finished in 1894, aided by the fellow Impressionist and horticulture enthusiast Gustave Caillebotte
1890
Monet buys the Giverny property
1891
Monet creates his first series-Haystacks-in wry emulation of Katsushika Hokusai’s views of Mount Fuji and would go on to produce many series, including those of Rouen Cathedral, poplars, and Waterloo Bridge
1892
Monet marries Alice, whose daughter Blanche will later marry Monet’s son Jean Claude Monet and Alice Hoschede in Venice, 1908
1893
Monet acquires additional land and begins constructing the water-lily pond, diverting an adjacent stream, and eventually up to eight employees maintain the garden, especially for his art
1901
Monet purchases his first automobile, selecting the fastest model available at the time
1909
Durant-Ruel gallery in Paris exhibits 48 water-lily paintings under the paradoxical tile The Waterlilies-Series of Landscapes of Water (Les Nymphéas, séries des paysages de l’eau), showing how aware Monet was of his radical innovations in these paintings
1914
Jean Monet dies of illness in February
1915
Presumed date of the Portland Art Museum painting. French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau proposes to Monet to paint a grand cycle of water lilies, so Monet constructs a large studio at Giverny to accommodate the project
Monet with Clemenceau at Giverny, ca. 1920
1918
Monet donates Grandes Décorations, the cycle of 22 canvases of water lilies, to the Nation of France as a memorial to “honor the victory and peace,” the weeping willow symbolizing the mourning nation
1923
A cataract operation resolves some of Monet’s vision issues but leaves him with distorted color perception and slightly blurred vision
1924
The exhibition Waterlilies opens in New York
1926
Monet dies at his home in Giverny
1927
Monet’s grand oval-shaped cycles of water lilies are installed at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris
Monet and Waterlily panels at Giverny Studio, 1920s
1947
Blanche dies in Nice, being the last family member to occupy the house in Giverny
1959
The Portland Art Museum acquires Waterlilies from Michel, Claude’s second son, through Slatkin Galleries of New York, and the painting is lined and varnished in Kansas City
1966
Michel bequeaths the Giverny estate and its contents to the Institut de France, whereupon the artist’s collection, including Impression, Sunrise, and nearly all of his Japanese prints enter the Musée Marmottan in Paris
Charles Erskine Scott Wood
American, 1852-1944
Untitled (Pond and Wood), 1895
Watercolor on paper
Gift of an Anonymous Donor, 2002.47.2
A major patron of the arts in Portland and one of the founders of the Museum, Wood joined American Impressionist Childe Hassam in sketching Oregon scenes in the traditional medium of watercolor, such as this beautiful view of a forest and water. Wood’s house nearby on Vista Avenue was decorated by Hassam with large Impressionist landscapes.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
French, 1796–1875
The Ponds of Ville d’Avray, 1867
Oil on canvas
Gift of the children of Caroline A. Ladd: Mrs. Helen Ladd Corbett, Mrs. Frederic B. Pratt, William Mead Ladd, Charles E. Ladd, and J. Wesley Ladd in memory of their mother, 13.5
The Impressionists admired Corot’s landscapes for showing what was directly in front of the artist rather than fictional or idealized scenes. He often combined water, land, buildings, and trees in harmonious arrangements, and he sought out beautiful late-day light to give his works a specific mood.
Claude Monet
French, 1840–1926
River at Lavacourt, 1879
Oil on canvas
Bequest of Charles Francis Adams, 43.8.33
Before American collectors discovered Monet, he had struggled financially and had to keep moving farther from Paris, to towns that were still accessible by the new train services but also established places on the Seine River, finally landing in Giverny after having lived on the Seine in Lavacourt. He continued to refine the effects of water and reflections that would become central to his Waterlily series.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Japanese, 1797-1861
Actors Matsumoto Kōshirō VI as Hori Fusatsugu and Sawamura Chōjūrō V as Tsubone Iwafuji,
1846/48
Color woodblock print on paper; ōban nishiki-e
Gift of Iva Hanks, ST366(91)
In a scene from the kabuki play Kagamiyama, Matsumoto Kōshirō plays the tough male Hori Fusatsugu, and the onnagata (a man who performs female roles) Sawamura Chōjūrō is the villain Iwafuji.
Utagawa Kunisada as
Toyokuni III
Japanese, 1786–1864
Act VI: Okaru’s Departure, from the series Pictorial Siblings to the Treasury of Loyal Retainers, 1859
Color woodblock print with embossing on paper; ōban nishiki-e
Gift of Mrs. Eugene Rockey, 77.37.5
French artists were fascinated by the richly patterned textiles depicted in Japanese prints. The flash of color adds another dimension; in fact, the word for color (iro) has the additional meaning of “sexy.” The picture captures a moment of rest, when a traveling woman stretches her legs from the edge of a palanquin.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Japanese, 1797–1861
Kyūdanme (Act IX), from the series Parody of the Storehouse of Loyal Retainers in Lanterns, 1846/48
Color woodblock print on paper
Museum Purchase: Funds provided by the Asian Art Council, 2023.19.4
Monet owned an example of this print, as well as many others showing actors and beauties. This scene depicts a family studying a kabuki theater ranking sheet (banzuke). The richly patterned textiles appealed to Monet and other French artists at the time, as did the highly stylized postures of the young family.
Utagawa Yoshiiku
Japanese, 1833–1904
Actor Ichimura Kakitsu IV, from the series Portraits as True Likenesses in the Moonlight, 1867
Color woodblock print on paper
Museum Purchase: Kathryn G. Rees Endowment Fund, 2024.11.2
Portraits of famous actors were popular subjects in ukiyo-e prints. This example comes from the series Portraits as True Likenesses in the Moonlight, which depicts 36 actors in shadowed profile.
Portraying the distinctive silhouette suggests a backstage encounter, perhaps glimpsed through a paper sliding screen—precisely the kind of intimacy that kabuki fans would have appreciated. French artists readily adopted the use of silhouettes in their work, as seen in examples in this exhibition.
Utagawa Yoshikazu
Japanese, active 1850–1870
Englishmen, 1862
Color woodblock print on paper; ōban nishiki-e
Museum Purchase: Margery Hoffman Smith Fund, 91.63
Japanese artists were as curious about foreigners as the French were about the world revealed in Japanese art. Here, a British soldier and merchant are identified with the following caption:
[England] is among the states of Europe. The people of this country are wondrously skilled at seafaring, going wherever they wish on the waters, and so they are called the “kings of the sea.” Hence, all they do is travel here and there on punitive expeditions, adding territories to their domain…People should know about this.
Claude Monet and Japonisme
“If you absolutely must…find an affiliation for me, put me with the old Japanese masters; the refinement of their taste has always delighted me, and I approve of the suggestives of their aesthetic, which evokes presence by a shadow, the whole by the part.” (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, June 1909) – Claude Monet
“We live only for the moment, in which we admire the splendor of the moonlight, the snow, the cherry blossom and the color of the maple leaves.” (from Tales of the Floating World of 1666) – Asai Ryōi
Claude Monet never traveled to Japan, yet he filled his homie with Japanese prints. Japanese art was little known in Europe before 1854, as the country had closed itself off to the world to prevent the spread of foreign influence, especially Christianity. In 1853, a flotilla of black American steam-powered gunships left Norfolk, Virginia, with a letter from President Filmore pressuring the Tokugawa shogunate to cease killing foreign shipwrecked sailors in their waters and to move toward awarding the United States unique trading privileges with Japan.
This new openness resulted in Japanese woodblock prints flooding into art centers in Europe and the United States, one of the most profoundly shocking and transformative events in the history of Western art. Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and other artists avidly collected these prints. They especially admired the use of cropping, the high point of view, the awareness of constant change in nature and life, the use of diagonals to suggest spatial recession, and the emphasis on nature and everyday life and entertainments, which were also the focus of their own works.
Japanese woodblocks were printed with water-based ink allowing for the subtle gradations of color and tone so admired and imitated by European artists. Monet’s water-lily paintings were also influenced by virtuoso Japanese brush drawings and by folding screens.
Katsushika Hokusai
Japanese, 1760–1849
Snowy Morning at Koishikawa, from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1831
Color woodblock print on paper;
ōban nishiki-e
The Mary Andrews Ladd Collection, 32.404
Monet admired this series by Hokusai that shows Mount Fuji from different locations, under different conditions, and in different seasons. Here, a viewing party enjoys the natural monument with a feast in a special pavilion, just after a heavy snowfall.
Utagawa Hiroshige
Japanese, 1797-1858
Mountain River on the Kiso Road, from an untitled series of triptychs depicting the themes of snow, moon, and flowers, 1857
Color woodblock print on paper;
ōban nishiki-e; triptych
The Mary Andrews Ladd Collection, 32.570a-c
Monet acquired an impression of this triptych by Hiroshige of a snowy acne along the Kiso Road. This print shows seasonal change, beloved by Impressionists, and resembles the Chinese landscape scrolls so admired by Japanese artists.
Utagawa Hiroshige II
Japanese, 1826–1869
Evening Snow at Mt. Hira, from the series Eight Views of Ōmi, 1859
Color woodblock print on paper
Gift of the Estate of Ann Weikel, 2017.86.2
Monet and other Impressionists were drawn to Japanese prints of landscapes that showed the different seasons, like this one by Hiroshige. Their own paintings of motifs at different times of the year, under different lighting and atmospheric conditions, drew from these prints. Monet even called Hiroshige “a wonderful Impressionist.”
Bloomberg Connects Audio Guide 101
Utagawa Hiroshige
Japanese, 1797–1858
Kanbara, Night Snow, from the series Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō, 1833/34
Color woodblock print on paper;
ōban nishiki-e
The Mary Andrews Ladd Collection, 32.484
Monet owned several prints from Hiroshige’s series that show the many official stops on the Tōkaidō road between the two capitals of Japan, Edo (present-day Tokyo) and Kyoto, the traditional imperial capital. Daimyo (feudal lords) and samurai traveled the road often and were familiar with its views and beautiful spots; they would have been eager customers for these masterful compositions that often show different weather and seasons.
Maurice Denis
French, 1870–1943
The Reflection in the Fountain, from the portfolio Album of Original Prints from the Vollard Gallery, 1897
Color lithograph on paper
Museum Purchase: Jean Y. Roth Memorial Fund, 2016.5.1
Denis was a member of the artistic brotherhood known as the Nabis (prophets). They were greatly influenced by Japanese prints, especially the cut-off compositions, scenes of everyday life, and insistent flatness of the surface. Here, Denis depicts a shaded garden. The polka dots of the seated woman’s blouse are reflected in the serene surface of the small fountain the young girl enters.
French Impressions
Japanese Prints in Context
Woodblock prints began to flourish in Japan in the late 17th century, fueled by a robust publishing industry and the talented designers and artisans. Appreciated by all classes of society, this art form was called pictures of the “floating world,” or ukiyo-e, and celebrated the transient pleasures of life in the shape of urban amusements.
Japanese prints in late 19th-century France were collected in huge numbers. They were an avid obsession for some admirers and an undeniably viral trend embraced by decorators, dealers, and those with a penchant for au courant things. Prominent dealer Hayashi Tadamasa (1853-1906), who counted Claude Monet among his famous clientele, is estimated to have imported more than 150,000 prints.
Many artists in France found the fresh viewpoints and novel compositions of Japanese prints inspiring, while others were attracted to their vivid color and use of line. Although we often imagine landscapes to have been the most popular, in fact, European artists admired many different types of Japanese prints.
Monet is known to have had the following genres in his personal collection: bijinga (pictures of beautiful people), yakusha-e (actor prints), fūkeiga (landscapes), Yokohama-e (late 19th-century prints depicting foreigners at the port of Yokohama), and sensō-e (war prints, including propaganda depicting the contemporary Sino-Japanese War). Surprisingly, Monet seems to have collected few still-lifes of flowers and birds (kachōga).
Mary Cassatt
American, 1844–1926
The Barefooted Child, ca. 1898
Drypoint and color aquatint on paper
Bequest of Winslow B. Ayer, 35.43
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Mary Cassatt
American, 1844–1926
By the Pond, ca. 1898
Drypoint and color aquatint on paper
Bequest of Winslow B. Ayer, 35.89
Cassatt attended the massive exhibition of ukiyo-e prints in Paris in 1890. She was particularly influenced by artist Kitagawa Utamaro, saying of his color woodblock prints that “you couldn’t imagine anything more beautiful.” Cassatt then began making color intaglio prints referencing Japanese style and subjects. Here, her focus on a quiet interaction between mother and child is enhanced by the lush surroundings. As did Monet, she explored the shifting reflections on the water to capture a specific moment of the day.
Kitagawa Utamaro
Japanese, 1753?–1806
Goldfish, from the series Elegant Comparisons of Little Treasures, ca. 1802
Color woodblock print on paper
The Mary Andrews Ladd Collection, 32.305
The lives of mothers and children were frequent motifs in Japanese art. In this print, from a series of six that focuses on children, the mother has fallen asleep while watching her son. The mischievous boy has disrupted the bowl and spilled the goldfish—popular pets for the upper classes. Artist Mary Cassatt (whose work is on view nearby) was inspired by series such as this for her images of mothers and children.
Utagawa Hiroshige II
Japanese, 1826–1869
Shichirigahama Beach in Sagami Province, from the series One Hundred Views of Famous Places in the Provinces, 1859,
Color woodblock print on paper,
ōban nishiki-e
Gift of Ella M. Hirsch, 37.53
French artists greatly admired the daring angles, cut-off compositions, and radical perspectives in Japanese prints. Here, Hiroshige presents a cresting wave that, due to perspective, seems even more towering than Mount Fuji behind it in the distance.
Henri Gustave Jossot
French, 1866–1951
The Wave, from L’Estampe originale, Album VI, 1894
Lithograph printed in green on paper
Museum Purchase: Print Acquisition Fund, 2015.14.1
This lithograph is a satire of Katsushika Hokusai’s Great Wave of around 1831, as well as other depictions of mighty waves in ukiyo-e prints, as seen nearby. Responding to the huge influx of Japanese prints into the Parisian market, Jossot portrayed a French artist swamped by a wave, his easel pitched overboard, his legs flying. Despite this irreverent depiction, Jossot and his fellow artists were greatly influenced by Japanese art and ukiyo-e prints.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
French, 1864–1901
Mademoiselle Marcelle Lender, Half-Length, 1895
Color lithograph on paper
Bequest of Saidee R. Berg, 74.14.2
Toulouse-Lautrec’s technically demanding eight-color portrait of actress Marcelle Lender shares compositional affinities with ukiyo-e depictions of courtesans and famous beauties (as seen in the nearby work of Kitagawa Utamaro), as does the prominent placement of his Japanesque monogram at the upper left of the sheet.
Bloomberg Connects Audio Guide 103
Kitagawa Utamaro
Japanese, 1753?–1806
Beauties of the Five Seasonal Festivals: Enjoying Chrysanthemum Wine on the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month, 1795/1805
Color woodblock print on paper
The Mary Andrews Ladd Collection, 32.278
Images of beautiful women (bijinga) form a distinct genre within ukiyo-e prints, one in which Utamaro excelled. His bijinga were widely collected by French artists, including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (whose work is on view nearby). Like Utamaro, Toulouse-Lautrec was fascinated by female beauty, but he often introduced caricatural elements, in contrast to Utamaro’s elegant and refined depictions.
Edouard Manet
French, 1832-1883
Cat and Flowers, 1869
Etching and aquatint on paper
Gift of David Hilton, 2024.84.3
Manet may have been influenced by images in Katsushika Hokusai’s Manga (Sketches) of 1813-collections of prints of everyday life-for his cat perched beside a Japanese-style porcelain planter. Like Hokusai, Manet had a keen eye for the movements and habits of felines. The cropped composition and the close-up perspective further link Manet’s etching to the ukiyo-e style.
Auguste Lepère
French, 1849–1918
Palace of Justice Seen from Notre Dame Bridge, 1889
Color woodcut on paper
Museum Purchase: Jean Y. Roth Memorial Fund, 2024.82.1
For this sunset scene, Lepère adopted Japanese water-based (rather than oil-based) inks. He used the bokashi technique of applying multiple colors by hand to the woodblock, which allowed him to create subtle layers of color in the sky, water, and puddles on the bridge. Other aspects of japonisme can be found in the depiction of silhouetted figures and the attention to atmospheric effects, heightened by his use of thin paper made in the Japanese manner.
Henri Rivière
French, 1864–1951
Behind the Elk by Frémiet (Trocadéro), from Thirty-Six Views of the Eiffel Tower, 1902
Color lithograph on paper
Gift of David Hilton, 2024.84.5
Here, the artist places the viewer in a grotto looking through a waterfall toward a sculpture of a boa constrictor attacking an elk by Emmanuel Frémiet. A clump of irises—favorite flowers of Japanese artists and Rivière’s personal motif—graces the left foreground. As in Katsushika Hokusai’s Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, the putative subject, the Eiffel Tower, appears as a mere accent to the overall composition.
Henri Rivière
French, 1864–1951
Thirty-Six Views of the Eiffel Tower, 1902
Illustrated bound book with 36 lithographs, housed in a paperboard slipcase
Museum Purchase: Jean Y. Roth Memorial Fund, 2012.104.1a-b
Rivière’s bound volume of 36 color lithographs was inspired by Katsushika Hokusai’s Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. Rivière focused on the construction of the Eiffel Tower, which is depicted in each composition—sometimes as the centerpiece, sometimes as a small detail in the distance—just as Hokusai had done with Mount Fuji. Rivière originally envisioned using the Japanese woodcut method for this project but soon switched to color lithography, with which he was more familiar.
Hashimoto Chikanobu
Japanese, 1838-1912
Viewing Cherry Blossoms at Night in the Garden, from the series Chiyoda Inner Palace, 1896
Color woodblock prints on paper; triptych
Gift of Al and Ann Martin, 2016.128.1a-c
A former samurai, Chikanobu often designed prints that look back with nostalgia to the era of samurai rule. This is one of a series of triptychs showing the “inner quarters” of the palace of the shoguns in Edo. The ōoku was a feminine realm that barred all males except the shogun and his young male children. No artist could know what took place behind the inner palace walls. For Chikanobu, the series was an excuse to portray high-ranking samurai women as paragons of feminine beauty and virtue. Here, he strikingly employed Western-style vanishing-point perspective, showing the growing influence of Western art in Japan.
ID: A woodblock print triptych depicting a courtyard scene in which three women are visible, the composition framed by the encircling walls of the palace building and centering upon a cherry blossom tree in full bloom. The composition is in greyscale, with the exception of the garments worn by the three ladies which are in color. In the rightmost panel, two women are visible appearing to have just stepped out of the palace onto a small platform that extends from a building filling the right edge of the composition. Through a shaded window behind them, the shadowed outlines of several other women gathered inside are visible, one holding a teapot. The backlit forms suggest a sense that a party is taking place, and that this scene may be set at dusk, although the print itself is overall quite light. The woman on the right is standing with hands clasped in front of her inside the sleeves of her kimono which is a soft brown, patterned with white flowers, red and black and blue fans, and red and orange trim. Her hair is pulled up into a bun on the top of her head and held with a large hair stick and she has a neutral facial expression, mouth slightly ajar as she appears to speak to the woman beside her. The second woman sits below on the platform at the top of a short set of stairs, her feet two steps below, slightly propped up by her left arm which rests on the platform. Her right arm reaches across her body, holding her opposite sleeve off the ground. She is wearing a blue and white kimono, with a pattern of rectangles in alternating colors extending vertically up the garment, and red trip around the neckline and sleeves. A wide sash (obi) in a red white and blue floral print crosses her midriff and is visible extending upward behind her shoulders as well. Her hair is also pulled back into an updo, and her face is raised slightly, appearing to listen attentively to the other woman. The remainder of this panel is filled with the wall and roof of the building, which extends across the composition through the other two panels. In the top right corner a vertical white square is filled with Japanese characters. A few more characters have been subtly added to the gray field of the ground below the building and appear hand-written, rather than printed. The center panel of the triptych holds an exuberantly flowering cherry tree whose branches extend into both of the panels beside, and from which petals are falling. In front of the tree, the third woman is standing facing toward two figures and the window of the palace, though her billowing kimono suggests she may be in motion. She is looking back over her shoulder toward the viewer, her face in a three-quarter profile as she looks upwards toward the blossoms. Her hair is pulled up and held with a long white hair stick decorated with a flower at one end. Her kimono is white with an elaborate floral pattern in grey, yellow and blue, with a riverlike red stripe running through. Her obi is red with a blue and white floral design. In her left hand she holds a lantern enclosed by a blue lattice lantern. Behind her, the wall of another long building delineates the perimeter of the courtyard, extending into the final panel on the left. In that panel, the building extends nearly to the leftmost side of the triptych before disappearing into the distance, behind which two more buildings are faintly visible. Branches of the cherry tree also extend into this panel, most notably a particularly long and low branch that extends far into the lower left corner, that is slightly miss-alingned across the seam between panels. Below that branch, the artists’ seal is placed.
Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt
American, born Sweden, 1878–1955
The Piano, 1906
Color woodcut on laid paper
Gift of Heirs of Charles Francis Adams Collection: Peter F. Adams, Mrs. Sandra Adams Beebe, and Charles Anthony Adams, 89.20.91
Nordfeldt’s print is a beautiful version of a traditional Japanese print of women admiring flowers, like Hashimoto Chikanobu’s triptych on view in this gallery. The Swedish American artist carefully mastered the techniques of ukiyo-e woodcut printmaking. He made this Japanesque print as part of a set of 12, in emulation of Japanese series. It was published in Chicago in time for the Art Institute of Chicago’s massive exhibition of Utagawa Hiroshige’s woodcuts in 1906.
Bloomberg Connects Audio Guide 104
Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt
American, born Sweden, 1878–1955
Anglers, 1906
Color woodcut on paper
Gift of Heirs of Charles Francis Adams Collection: Peter F. Adams, Mrs. Sandra Adams Beebe, and Charles Anthony Adams, 89.20.98
Jules Chéret
French, 1836–1932
Exhibition of Japanese Prints, 1890
Color lithograph on paper
Collection of John and Joyce Price, L2024.29.1
The 1890 Exhibition of Japanese Prints featured more than one thousand prints and was hugely influential for French artists and audiences, elevating the japonisme fervor across Paris. For this poster, Chéret borrowed an image from the exhibition of a woman holding a letter. The green stripes on either side imitate the mounting silks used in traditional Japanese hanging scrolls.
Katsushika Hokusai
Japanese, 1760–1849
Hakone Lake in Sagami Province, from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1831
Color woodblock print on paper;
ōban nishiki-e
The Mary Andrews Ladd Collection, 32.418
Utagawa Kunisada
Japanese, 1786-1864
Act VIII, from the series The Storehouse of Loyal Retainers, a Primer, 1828
Color woodblock print on paper;
nishiki-e; triptych
The Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Graphic Arts Collection; Gift in memory of Morris Schnitzer, 80.40a-c
The story Chūshingura (Treasure House of Loyalty) was adapted to the kabuki stage. It is based on an actual incident in 1702 when the samurai warriors in the service of their daimyo (feudal lord) Asano of Akō wreaked vengeance on a shogunal official for causing their master’s death and ruining their domain. The 11 acts of the play, which Kunisada’s narrative prints illustrate, show different aspects of the warrior spirit through numerous subplots.
Utagawa Hiroshige
Japanese, 1797–1858
Ochanomizu, from the series Famous Places in Edo, 1853
Color woodblock print on paper;
ōban nishiki-e
The Mary Andrews Ladd Collection, 32.513
An impression of this print, from a series among the many produced by Hiroshige that the Impressionists so admired, was in Monet’s collection. Ochanomizu was famous for its picturesque bridge over the Kanda River, here shown with snow gently descending on the water. The ladies employ traditional parasols to keep the flakes at bay.
Félix Bracquemond
French, 1833-1914
Selections from the “Rousseau” Service, 1866-75
Glazed faience with transfer and hand coloring
Loan from the Collection of Bill and Helen Jo Whitsell, L2024.32.1-4
An early enthusiast of Japanese designs, Bracquemond was among the first to own a copy of Katsushika Hokusai’s Manga (Sketches) of 1813. This large table service marks a fascinating marriage of Japanese inspiration and French manufacture.
Closely observed Japanese motifs from the natural world- flowers, fish, and insects-were transfer-printed onto the objects, then painted by hand.
The series, commissioned by Eugène Rousseau for his retail shop, was an overwhelming success and remained in production for decades.
The Influence of Ukiyo-e
The aesthetics of Japanese ukiyo-e prints profoundly influenced Claude Monet, especially as seen in his water-lily paintings. Ukiyo-e- often translated as “floating world”- comes from teh Buddhist word ukiyo- and combination of “uki” (sadness) and “yo” (life)- which refers to the transitory, fleeting nature of life and experience. This concept is similar to Monet’s lifelong pursuit to capture a moment in time with his paintings.
Subject Matter
The natural world, including landscapes and flowers at different times of year, was a favored subject of ukiyo-e prints. These motifs frequently had wider, metaphorical meanings. While the ostensible subject of Waterlilies is reflections within Monet’s pond, his higher artistic aim was to convey his transient perception of and response to what he had seen.
Composition
Many of the compositional elements in Waterlilies are hallmarks of ukiyo-e prints: the abstraction of forms, the flattening of space, the cropping and simplification of the composition, the use of asymmetry and unusually high and low perspective, and the merging of near and far views.
Technique
Ukiyo-e prints utilize bright, pure color and decorative pattern. Fluid brushstrokes convey motion, and forms are simplified and stylized. The negative spaces and the interplay of light and shadow convey as much about the subjects as the subjects themselves. Monet employs many of these techniques. He varies the size, shape, and direction of his brushstrokes depending on what they represent. Much of the composition is left open to the viewer’s imagination.
Stu Levy
American, born 1948
Rock and Pond, Japanese Gardens, Portland, Oregon, 1988
Gelatin silver print
Gift of Dr. Arnold Rustin, 1996.29.5
Levy made this photograph of a pond in Portland’s Japanese Gardens in Washington Park, from roughly the same angle as Monet shows his water lilies. What caught Levy’s eye, however, was the illusion of the bubbles as stars in the sky and a feeling that he was seeing something “cosmic.”
Edward Steichen
American, 1879–1973
The Pond-Moonlight, from the journal Camera Work XIV, 1906
Photogravure
Transferred from the Crumpacker Family Library, 2005.2.6
Steichen sought to raise photography to the level of art by striving for the effects of mood and light achieved by painters. He promoted artistic photography through magazines with exquisite photogravure reproductions. Like Monet, the American photographer uses a pond and reflections to create a dusk scene of maximum suggestiveness.
Susan Seubert
American, born 1970
Giverny—Monet’s Lily Pond, 1990
Gelatin silver print
The Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Graphic Arts Collection, 1998.46.606
Monet’s ponds and gardens have continued to inspire artists long after his death. Portland photographer Seubert here captures the rich textures and heaviness of the wisteria-laden Japanese-style bridge, part of a series on Giverny made during a trip with Portland Art Museum curator Gordon Gilkey.
Matsubara Naoko
Japanese, active Canada, born 1937
Walden Pond, cover to the portfolio Solitude, 1971
Color woodblock print on paper mounted on portfolio cover
Gift of Marge Riley, 88.22.12
Japanese Canadian artist Naoko focused not on Giverny, however, but on Walden Pond in Massachusetts, made famous by author Henry David Thoreau. Naoko’s sheet is the cover image of a portfolio of 11 prints showing various details of pond life.
Monet’s water-lily paintings also found an audience in Japan, whose artists had been so important to the transformations he and the Impressionists wrought in European art.
Bloomberg Connects Audio Guide 106
Katsushika Hokusai
Japanese, 1760–1849
Kajikazawa in Kai Province, from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1831
Color woodblock print on paper;
ōban nishiki-e
The Mary Andrews Ladd Collection, 32.429
The mountain peeks over the horizon in this elegant landscape of a lagoon or pond, which may have inspired Monet in creating his many watery depictions, since the artist owned an impression of this print. Japanese artists included their signatures in calligraphic cartouches as part of the composition of the prints. Additionally, they used water-based ink to achieve the much-admired gradations of color and light, which also makes each one somewhat unique.
Charles-Louis Houdard
French, 1874–1931
Frogs, from L’Estampe originale, Album VIII, 1894
Color aquatint on paper
Museum Purchase: Print Acquisition Fund, 2015.13.1
Plants, animals, and insects are recurring themes in Japanese prints of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Houdard adopted this imagery to create a charming composition of frogs, lily pads, and irises, but he differentiated his work by using color aquatint rather than the traditional woodblock technique of his Japanese sources.
[Artwork Description: This woodblock print portrays two frogs on the shore of a body of water. The print contains blue and yellow on white paper that, when layered, create a dark green tone. Hints of the layered print process are noticeable throughout the image with sprinkles of yellow and blue ink peaking through. In some places, the print layers are revealed to be slightly offset, giving either a blue or yellow edge to each subject. From the left, bottom corner, lily pad leaves are scattered across the surface of the water in various sizes. The lily pads are dark green with small, thin veins in yellow ink. One small yellow lily pad is situated on the left side of the print. A large blue iris blooms on the right side. Its stems and leaves are dark green, with yellow highlights to suggest the position of the sun overhead. The flower contains several buds, with touches of blue petals peaking out, as well as an iris flower in full bloom. Its middle petal is voluptuous and stands straight up, while the two adjacent petals curve down and are adorned with a yellow line running through the middle. The first frog sits at the edge of a yellow shore that crosses diagonally across the bottom right corner of the print and is sprinkled with green dashes. The frog is dark green, illuminated by yellow highlights, and looks out towards the water. Three large stalks of dark green grass emerge from the bottom right corner and cross the print in a curve. Thin yellow lines run through the grass with a slight fade in the green color to reveal a layer of yellow ink beneath it. The second green frog with yellow highlights sits atop the intersection of two stalks of grass. It is facing forward, as if making eye contact with the viewer. Small, disparate horizontal lines of blue ink are scattered across the print, leaving negative space to suggest a smattering of shadows and light across the surface of a still body of water that fades into the background. A border of thin blue and yellow lines with curved corners encloses the image. In the right corner is a small red stamp containing the artist’s initials, “C, L, H,” in curved and playful lettering as a reference to the Japanese hanko, a personal seal or name stamp. Outside the border, along the bottom right corner, is the text “NO 70.” Below it is the artist’s signature, “Ch Houdard” in cursive, with the tail end of the “D” trailing down in a curve. The print is held in a simple, thin frame of cherry wood with white matting.]
Conserving Waterlilies
Beginning in the 1870s, Claude Monet made it clear that his paintings were not to be varnished. He spoke often of seeking to portray that which exists between himself and his subjects: the air, the envelope, the atmosphere. A critical aspect of trying to capture this intangible quality is a very intentional emphasis on the painting’s surface. Monet sought a textured, matte, and pastel-like surface with subtle variations of luminosity and tone.
Conservation was undertaken to remove an acrylic resin varnish applied to Waterlilies in 1959. The varnish substantially altered the painting’s essential soft, delicate tonalities, saturating the paint films, distorting the colors, and altering their intended relationship to one another. This saturation affected both the value (lightness or darkness) and the intensity (brightness or dullness) of the colors. This change was especially pronounced in the blue pigments, which became much darker and are prevalent throughout Waterlilies. In addition, the varnish imparted an overall glossiness that reflected light differently than a matte paint film would. The aim of the conservation project was to return the painting more closely to its original appearance. The removal of this inappropriate varnish has both restored Monet’s intended emphasis on the painting’s surface and reestablished the tonal relationships.
The conservation of Waterlilies was generously supported in part by an Art Conservation Project Grant from the Bank of America Foundation.
In this detail, the painting has been devarnished on the left side. Notice how the green in the varnished half has a deeper, richer tone
In this spectacular light photograph (a type of conservation documentation used to show the matte or glossiness of a surface) varnish has been removed in the bottom half restoring the intended matt surface of the painting
Bloomberg Connects Audio Guide 105
Claude Monet
French, 1840–1926
Waterlilies, 1914–1915
Oil on canvas
Museum Purchase: Helen Thurston Ayer Fund, 59.16
Waterlilies is among the Museum’s most celebrated works. It was also important to the Monet family, who kept it for more than 40 years; it had hung in their dining room most of that time (though not the one in Giverny). One of several large-scale water-lily depictions, it is part of the series of more than 250 water-lily paintings he made during his late career in Giverny. Monet did not sign this canvas, as it was never sold during his lifetime; rather, it contains the signature stamp of his estate, administered by his son Michel.
Monet’s Painting Techniques
A critical aspect of Claude Monet’s working method was painting out-of-doors, called en plein air (in the open air). He spent hours at a time observing nature- the way colors reflected on water at different times of day and the shifting clouds. In Waterlilies, Monet sought to depict the constantly changing relationships between light, water, reflection, and atmosphere. He positions the viewer simultaneously over and within the water-lily pond. The idea was to capture a moment, a sensation- not the details.
Waterlilies exhibits many of the hallmarks of Monet’s late paintings; note the minimal, gestural brushstrokes used to suggest the lily pads and the reflection of the trailing willow branches, as well as the way he mixed the colors directly on the canvas (a technique called wet-in-wet), giving a sense of immediacy to the work. Equally important is the multilayered, rough, and textured surface imbuing the painting with motion through the way it reflects light.
In Monet’s quest “to convey what is alive between me and the subject,” Waterlilies becomes a synthesis of subjective impressions and close observation, wherein he prioritizes the materiality and colors of the paints and the ephemeral qualities of a moment in time over tangible forms.
Jean-Pierre Hoschedé, Claude Monet Painting at Giverny, July 1915 (detail).
This photograph shows Monet working on PAM’s Waterlilies in his gardens at Giverny in 1915. A large white parasol keeps the sun’s glare off the canvas.
Bertha Lum
American, 1869–1954
Wind and Rain, 1908
Color woodcut on paper
The Carol and Seymour Haber Collection, 2003.66.1
Lum trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was introduced to Japanese-inspired woodcuts. Having made numerous trips to Japan to learn traditional ukiyo-e techniques, she was later named a “master craftsman” by the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston in 1908 and received a silver medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. This sheet and Theatre Street, Yokohama were purchased directly from that exhibition.
Bertha Lum
American, 1869–1954
Junks on the Inland Sea, 1908
Color woodcut on paper
Gift of Heirs of Charles Francis Adams Collection: Peter F. Adams, Mrs. Sandra Adams Beebe, and Charles Anthony Adams, 89.20.59
Like ukiyo-e artists, Lum strove to capture the ethereal effects of mist moving over the sea. In Gangplanks to the East, a collection of Asian folk tales and her personal reminiscences, she mused:
Surely it is the veil of the gods which hangs over the Inland Sea, for nowhere on earth is there such beauty—a splendid dream you feel you must hold, neither yesterday nor tomorrow is of importance there, but only the one-perfect, breath-taking day.
Bertha Lum
American, 1869–1954
Pines by the Sea, 1912
Color woodcut on paper
The Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Graphic Arts Collection, 80.122.281
Bertha Lum
American, 1869–1954
Theatre Street, Yokohama, 1905
Color woodcut on paper
Gift of Heirs of Charles Francis Adams Collection: Peter F. Adams, Mrs. Sandra Adams Beebe, and Charles Anthony Adams, 89.20.90
Henri Rivière
French, 1864–1951
Twilight, from the series The Enchantment of Hours, 1901
Color lithograph on paper
Promised gift of Dan Bergsvik and Don Hastler, L2024.31.4
Henri Rivière
French, 1864–1951
Mist, from the series The Enchantment of Hours, 1901
Color lithograph on paper
Promised gift of Dan Bergsvik and Don Hastler, L2024.31.2
Henri Rivière
French, 1864–1951
Reflections, from the series The Enchantment of Hours, 1901
Color lithograph on paper
Promised gift of Dan Bergsvik and Don Hastler, L2024.31.3
Henri Rivière
French, 1864–1951
Dawn, from the series The Enchantment of Hours, 1901
Color lithograph on paper
Promised gift of Dan Bergsvik and Don Hastler, L2024.31.1
Rivière, like Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige, worked in series, which allowed him to explore a single subject from many angles. In The Enchantment of Hours, he captured the essence and mood of specific times of day in a village in Brittany. His careful attention to atmospheric conditions links his work to the Japanese artists as well as to the French and American Impressionists.