I never realised how much Japanese art shaped Monet’s entire world
Most people know that Japanese prints influenced Van Gogh, but I was surprised to discover just how deeply they affected Claude Monet too.
At Giverny, Monet filled entire rooms with ukiyo-e prints by Hiroshige, Hokusai, Utamaro and Kunisada. His famous Japanese bridge, water garden and even parts of the Water Lilies compositions seem tied to ideas he absorbed from Japanese art.
The more I looked into it, the more obvious it became:
- asymmetrical compositions
- cropped views
- reflections replacing horizons
- decorative surfaces
- atmospheric rain and mist effects
Even Monet’s house itself feels like a dialogue between Impressionism and Japanese aesthetics.
I ended up researching the rooms at Giverny, identifying prints on the walls, and tracing how they fed into paintings like the Japanese Bridge and Water Lilies series.
Would love to know whether others think Monet was the European artist most transformed by Japonisme?