Impressionists and Japonisme: Early International Influences. By Dr. Melissa Berry
Sunday Lecture Series 2022 (Virtual Event)
March 6, 2-4pm (PST)
After Japan threw open its borders to international trade in 1858, western Europe developed an almost insatiable interest in the material culture of this long-obscured nation. Paris’s 1867 Universal Exposition and its incredibly popular Japanese pavilion determined that the admiration for Japan, sometimes referred to as Japonisme, had seeped into every aspect of visual life in France — from interior design to clothing to art. This lecture explores how by the 1870s, the independent group of artists who came to be known as the Impressionists found many ways to proclaim their devotion to Japanese aesthetics and material culture in their artworks.
General $30 | Members and Students $25
Get the series of 4 lectures: $90 General Admission; $75 Gallery Members and Students (buy series tickets by March 4).
Images (L-R): Kobayashi Kiyochika (Japanese, 1847 – 1915), Hana Moyo, Kabuki Performance (detail), woodcut, 35 x 70.9 cm. Gift of Judith Patt. AGGV. 2012.023.026 a-c. Collection of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Melissa Berry, courtesy of Melissa Berry. Shoda Koho (Japanese, 1870 – 1946) Boat under Bridge in Rain (detail), ink on woodcut, 23X36.5cm. Bequest of Miss Margaret Corbett. AGGV. 1971.120.001. Collection of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
Dr. Melissa Berry, Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Victoria, did her MA at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London (with a thesis on “Le Japon à Paris: Japanese Influences in Paris 1865-1870”) and her Ph.D. in Art History and Visual Studies at the University of Victoria with a focus on constructing artistic identities in Paris and London 1850-1870. She has given conference and public talks in England, France, the United States, and across Canada on topics such as “The Great Wave in Britain: The Artistic Influence of Japan in the 19th Century” and has taught numerous courses related to Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. In 2020, Dr. Berry spoke on “Claude Monet’s Garden at Giverny” for the Associates’ Sunday Art Lecture Series at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and in 2023, COVID permitting, she will lead a tour, organized by the Associates, called “Paris, Normandy, and Aix-En-Provence: On the Trail of the Impressionists.”
