Impressionists and Japan. Art between East and West. The history of one passion

For more than two centuries, Japan lived in isolation from the outside world, and only in the mid-19th century did the Land of the Rising Sun reopen to the West. A new era in the relations between Japan and European countries began, and this was no less relevant to art. At the World Expositions in London and Paris, the Japan Pavilion, where prints and decorative applied arts were presented, created a real sensation. In the second half of the 19th century, almost all Impressionist artists were enchanted by the simplicity and elegance of the Japanese style. The penetration of Eastern aesthetics into Western perception through art, primarily visual art, changed the paradigm of artistic thinking: to see the important in everyday life — in raindrops, the fallen cherry blossoms, the setting sun... The book “Impressionism and Japan. Art between East and West: The History of One Passion” is dedicated to the history of the mutual penetration of Eastern and Western cultures, the phenomenon of fascination with Japan in Europe and America from the mid-19th century to the present day.