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- Goyo (1880-1921 ) [front cover, 52] was one of Japan�s greatest woodblock artists. He started making prints with Watanabe in 1915, but dissatisfaction with Watanabe�s workmanship led Goyo to open his own workshop in 1918. Goyo was deeply indebted to the work of the great ukiyo-e artist, Utamaro (1753-1806). Utamaro�s influence is obvious in Goyo�s fascination with exquisitely detailed hairdos and his preference for large bust portraits. Because Goyo sketched from live models, he was able to get a more three-dimensional feeling than his ukiyo-e predecessors. Most of his prints also have a wonderful mica back�ground. This gifted artist died in 1921 when he was only forty, leaving many prints unfinished. He has often been referred to as �the new Utamaro.�
Shinsui (1896-1972) [VI, 53] began by painting portraits of women in the ukiyo-e style. In 1916, Watanabe persuaded him to make prints, and Shinsui subsequently produced fantastic work superior to anything else of its kind. In the 1920�sand 30�s, he was oneof Japan�s leading artists.
Watanabe also had a long and fruitful relation�ship with Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) [VII], who made hundreds of distinctively atmospheric landscape prints. Hasui�s landscapes owed a great deal to the ukiyo-e landscape master Hiroshige. Hasui shared Hiroshige�s interest in the times of the day, the seasons, and the weather, especially snowfalls.
One of the greatest and most prolific of the shin hanga artists began his career as a Western-style oil painter. Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) [59] was heavily influenced by the French Impressionists. Nature was a major source of inspiration for Yoshida and his travels in Asia, Africa, Europe and America provided subjects for many of his prints. Yoshida combines western artistic ideas with traditional Japanese techniques. The result was an updated, Westernized version of the traditional ukiyo-e print. Because Yoshida personally supervised the engraving and printing processes and demanded the highest standards of craftsmanship, his prints are technically superior. He used a wide variety of colours but the effect was always soft and subtle. Yoshida�s prints also reflect the influ�ence of Hiroshige in their concern with the seasons, the weather, the time of day and
parlait que de ces estampes � Paris, o� s�est d�velopp� un march� florissant de collection�neurs.
Les estampes d�Utamaro �taient les premi�res � �tre en vogue. Cependant, suite � l�ouverture des ports japonais aux navires �trangers, les estampes de Hiroshige ont aussi commenc� � appara�tre sur les march�s occidentaux. D�s les ann�es 1860, l�engouement pour l�estampe japonaise est devenu si vif qu�on en exp�diait de grands nombres du Japon aux boutiques de curiosit�s partout en Europe. Les collec�tionneurs europ�ens tels que Vever, Gonse et de Goncourt, et plus tard, les amateurs am�ricains tels que Fenollosa et Frank Lloyd Wright ont amass� d��normes collections � des prix modiques. Les mus�es en Europe et aux Etats-Unis en ont acquis de vastes quantit�s aussi. Puisque les Japonais atta�chaient si peu de valeur aux estampes, ils ne demandaient pas mieux que de les vendre. En cons�quence, il y a plus de collections importantes d�estampes ukiyo-e en dehors du Japon qu�au Japon m�me.
Alors que la perspective occidentale a in�fluenc� des artistes ukiyo-e tels que Okumura Masanobu, Toyoharu Hokusai, Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi, Yoshitoshi et Kiyochika, l�estampe japonaise a en m�me temps fortement in�fluenc� l�esprit et la vision des artistes europ�ens de la fin du dix-neuvi�me si�cle, tels que Manet, Monet, Degas, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Whistler et l�Am�ri�caine Mary Cassatt. Ironiquement, au moment o� /'ukiyo-e injectait de nouvelles �nergies � l�art occidental, la tradition s��teignait rapide�ment, d�, en grande partie, � l�influence de la technologie occidentale et � un n�gativisme croissant de la part du peuple japonais vis-�- vis de sa propre culture et de son patrimoine.
Apr�s les expositions internationales d�es�tampes japonaises � Londres et � Paris en 1862 et 1867, les artistes europ�ens se sont passionn�s pour l�art japonais. Cet enthousi�asme survient au moment m�me o� les artistes europ�ens �prouvent de profonds changements dans la conception m�me de la peinture. Les Europ�ens �taient s�duits par les motifs japonais, le kimono et ses motifs divers, et par la mani�re japonaise de com�poser: le tronquage de la partie la plus importante du sujet, les grands espaces monochromes et les grands espaces vides, le
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