James McNeill Whistler, Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen, 1864 (Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art)

The Allure of the East: Japan’s Impact on the Arts of the West, 1860-1920

Presented by Karen Pope, Ph.D.

Sunday, July 13, 2025 | 2:30PM - 4:00PM
Doors open at 2:00PM

Suggested Donation: $25

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Art historian and NCHM Friend Karen Pope, Ph.D., will share one of her favorite topics to complement the Museum’s Daryl Howard exhibition, The Floating World: Tokyo to Texas.

From the “opening” of Japan in the 1850s until the early 20th century, the enthusiastic importation of Japanese decorative arts generated robust collecting and a craze called Japonisme (Japanomania).  Modern painters especially embraced Japanese porcelains, bronzes, and woodblock prints, and from the 1860s onward, such objects appeared in their pictures as props, eventually also influencing the subjects and compositional strategies of western artists.  Dr Pope’s talk will focus on the embrace and impact of Japanese art on famous artists in Europe and America; her illustrated presentation will review the Japonisme of Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, Whistler, Cassatt, other key figures of the period, and the Japanese artists and subjects that inspired them.

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Sponsors

Become a sponsor for this exhibition or an exhibition-related event? Download the Sponsorship Packet below, or contact Cristina Feldott at (512) 478-2335 or cfeldott@nchmuseum.org.