Impressionism found in Japan

Impressionism is an art movement from the second half of the 19th century led by French artists. It started with an 1874 exhibition held by a group of young artists, including Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, and Cézanne, and its impact gradually expanded from the world of painting to music and literature, bringing about a major transformation in modern art. Impressionists departed from the academic beauty of form that was so highly valued at the Salon (the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris), and adopted as their guiding principle the concept of expressing the visual world exactly the way they saw it. To achieve this, they often used the divided brushstroke technique, in which, instead of mixing pigments on the palette, the artists arranged primary colors on the canvas in a manner that captured the ever-changing light. Another characteristic feature of impressionism is the extensive influence it has received from Japonisme, the craze for Japanese art and design that spread in the West. Presented here are some representative examples of masterpieces of impressionists displayed at art museums throughout Japan.