CC. The Larger Context

5. Wichmann, Siegfried. Japonisme: The Japanese Influence on Western Art in the 19th and 20th Centuries. 1981. Reprint, New York: Park Lane, 1985. Originally published as Japonismus: Ostasien und Europa. Begegnungen in der Kunst des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. Herrsching: Schuler, 1980.

Wichmann’s work has been criticised for its tendency to draw tenuous and untheorised connections between the arts of Japan and of Europe and the United States but remains a useful resource particularly for its more than 1,000 illustrations, by far the most generous selection available in a single volume devoted to Japonisme. The work is organised thematically and provides a readable overview of the historical development of Japonisme, though other studies, most particularly that by Berger (9), are more careful and perceptive in analysis both of particular works and the ways Japonisme informed and extended the development of modern art in Europe and the United States. See also 11.