Ukiyo-e’s Contribution to Monet’s Great Works

Claude Monet, one of the greatest impressionists, left many works including a series of “Water Lily” under the influence of Japanese woodblock prints called Ukiyo-e. This can be proved by the fact that he was deeply committed to collecting Ukiyo-e works by the grate Japanese masters, Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro and so on.

Ukiyo-e was first introduced to Europe at the international exhibition of London in1862 and of Paris in 1878. Then, there was a Japanese boom called Japonism in which many painters in the 19th century were influenced by Japanese prints and paintings. Like many others, Monet soon became obsessed with the sensation because the artists of the Far East were taking a completely new approach toward art. In particular, the flat and asymmetrical composition of Ukiyo-e was breaking the Western painting convention. As Monet later described, Japanese art shaped his style and the way he saw the world around him.

The best examples of his obsession with Ukiyo-e are his Giverny home and garden. Giverny is a suburb of Paris with many beautiful lakes and the place where Monet surrounded himself with the collected Ukiyo-e works and continued creative activities until he died at the age of 86. He planted water lilies and wisteria flowers and then built the arched bridge called “Taiko-bashi” in the garden to replicate Hiroshige’s world. To draw his inspiration from the garden, he gathered various kinds of trees, grasses and flowers and planted them by himself. He also created three greenhouses and hired six gardeners to keep it beautiful.

Moreover, his passion toward Ukiyo-e extended to the interiors like kitchen, dining room and even bathroom by coordinating the color of the interior with that of the Ukiyo-e works. Now you can visit Monet’s house in Giverny to see both his wonderful Ukiyo-e collections and his ideal garden.
A series of “Water Lily” was born here in Giverny. Monet made every effort to express the color of the flowers subtly changing with sunlight and varying with weather and season, so his garden was often compared to a living canvas or a living atelier which focused on the very moment of the changes in nature. In fact, this was exactly the one that Monet would like to express.
In this way, Ukiyo-e aroused Monet’s imagination and enabled him to leave many great masterpieces. Although he never visited Japan, it could be said that Japanese art significantly contributed to his works beyond the sea. Moreover, they still attract many admirers all over the world. Especially, Japan has a lot of Monet’s fans and it is because there is such a strong relationship between Monet and Japanese art.