Rissho (Hiroshige II)

On April 1st, 1867 The International Exposition (Exposition Universelle) was held in Paris and for the first time Japan presented art pieces. The exhibition attracted a great deal of interest and resulted in all things Japanese becoming stylish and fashionable. The artwork will in particular have a deep influence on the impressionists and post impressionists (Manet, Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh in particular).

In this POST, the Ukiyo-e artist Rissho (formally known as Hiroshige II) whose artwork was presented, shares about his print Red Plum part of his series of 36 Selected Flowers. The series name includes a Japanese word-play between the word for flower and poet.
Charles de Montblanc was a French diplomat with tight links in Japan and was the actor of the participation of Japan and the visit from one Empire to another, France being ruled by Emperor Napoleon III. 
Emile Zola, French author and critic and his friend Edouard Manet will both attend the exhibition. Manet will even paint a landscape with the exhibition.

 

Vincent Van Gogh

In January 1890, Theo Van Gogh had a boy that he named Vincent after his brother. As a gift for his nephew, the artist painted Almond Blossom, inspired by the print Red Plum by Japanese artist Rissho. In his letter of March 17, he wrote to his brother about the painting “you’ll see that it was perhaps the most patiently worked, best thing I had done, painted with calm and a greater sureness of touch.”

 

From March to April 1890, thanks to Theo, Vincent's paintings were exhibited at the Independant Artists exhibition where he got many positive feedbacks from his fellow artists. Among them, Pissarro, Claude Monet and Paul Gauguin who wrote to him in June “you have never worked with so much balance while conserving the sensation and the interior warmth needed for a work of art, precisely in an era when art is a business regulated in advance by cold calculations”

 

Sources: vangoghletters.org Van Gogh: lust for life, Irving Stone

Japan, France, and East-West Aesthetics: French Literature, 1867-2000
L'Exposition universelle de 1867 illustrée ; www.hiroshigeii.net