Erotic Japonisme: The Influence of Japanese Sexual Imagery on Western Art - Paperback

by Ricard Bru (Author)

At its height in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Japonisme had a tremendous impact on Western art. In this publication, author Ricard Bru approaches the cultural phenomenon of Japonisme from an innovative standpoint. He presents an in-depth discussion of the influence of Japanese printed erotic imagery by ukiyo-e masters such as Kitagawa Utamaro, Katsushika Hokusai, and Utagawa Hiroshige on European artists, including Edgar Degas, Auguste Rodin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Gustav Klimt and Pablo Picasso, as well as writers, critics, and collectors, such as Edmond de Goncourt, Joris-Karl Huysmans, and Émile Zola. With over 160 color illustrations sourced from public and private collections, Erotic Japonisme demonstrates the rich artistic dialogue that existed between Europe and Japan.

Author Biography

Ricard Bru (Ph.D. in Art History) has been a professor of Nineteenth-Century Art History at the University of Barcelona and he is currently working for the Institute of Culture of Barcelona. He curated the resent exhibitions "Secret Images: Picasso and the Japanese Erotic Print" (2009), and "Japonisme: The Fascination of Japanese Art" ("Japonismo: La fascinación por el arte japonés") (2013).