The 45th Society for the Study of Japonisme Award (2024)
Recipient: Sophie Basch, “Le Japonisme, un art français [Japonisme: As French Art],” Les presses du Réel, 2023
Reasons for Award
This book is a thorough exploration of the discourses on Japonisme that emerged in France from the late 19th to the early 20th century, placing them in the context of the totality of discourses of the time and exploring their dynamic meanings in their places of origin. Many previously unexamined discourses are considered here, and oft-quoted discourses are reconsidered in terms of their significance. In this sense, this book is an essential reference for those seeking to understand the language in which Japonisme was perceived in France.
Because of its methodology, this book does not discuss Japanese art and culture per se or quantify its influence on French art and culture, nor does it examine the intentions of artists such as Whistler, Degas, and Monet, all of whom are considered Japonisme artists. Instead, the author focuses mainly on criticism of writers such as Chesneau, Burty, and Goncourt. Rather than discussing Japanese influences, this book emphasizes that Japanese art found esthetic values in opposition to the norms of beauty established by academism. The book also mentions that, despite their common interest in Japanese art, the artists had delicate relationships with each other; each had a distinct attitude toward the society after France’s defeat in the Franco–Prussian War.
The author abundantly describes the context in which Japanese art was considered in France at the time; many of these are surprising and new to Japanese researchers. For example, Hokusai’s portraits of the human figure, especially in his Hokusai Manga, have been compared to Hogarth, Goya, Gavarni, and Daumier. Another under-considered facet is the Persian influence on Japanese decoration believed by some to be very strong; an unanswered question that arises here is that although there was certainly a Japanese influence of chintz, if Indian, was there any influence from Persia other than the ancient arabesque pattern?
From the early days of Japonisme, Japanese art was often referenced in parallel with ancient Greek art. Until the neoclassical period of the first half of the 19th century, ancient Greek architecture was considered “pure white” and adherent to strict symmetry, but at that time, it became clear that it had been “colored” and that its symmetry was loose. It is also interesting to note that the discovery in the mid-19th century of the colored nature and loose symmetry of Greek architecture provided an impetus for an increased appreciation of Japanese art, which favored rich colors and asymmetry.
The book’s strict analysis method further limits the scope of its coverage. This is not a weakness of the book, however, and it is precisely because of this that a number of discourses are given due illumination. Sophie Basch, is a professor at the Sorbonne University, and her research focuses on French literature, particularly on the gaze abroad. Her book is full of the rhetoric and terminology typical of French literary studies and may be difficult for Japonisme scholars interested in non-French countries or Japanese art, but the merits of the book more than compensate for its weaknesses.
(The Committee on the Society for the Study of Japonisme Award)
Biography
1963 : Born in Brussels
1994 : PhD at the Université Libre de Bruxelles
1992–1997: Curator at the Royal Library of Belgium, Rare Book Reserve
1998–2002: Professor at the University of Haute–Alsace (Mulhouse).
2002–2007: Professor at the University of Poitiers.
2007–: Professor at Sorbonne University (Paris).
Selected Publications
The following titles in square brackets are provisional translations (except for translated publications):
Le Mirage grec. La Grèce moderne dans la littérature française depuis la création de l’École française d’Athènes jusqu’à la guerre civile grecque (1846-1946) [The Greek Mirage. Modern Greece in French literature from the creation of the French School of Athens to the Greek Civil War (1846-1946)], Paris-Athènes, Hatier, coll. “Confluences”, 1995, 537 p.
Paris-Venise, 1887-1932. La “Folie vénitienne” dans le roman français, de Paul Bourget à Maurice Dekobra [“The ‘Venetian Madness’ in French Novels, from Paul Bourget to Maurice Dekobra”], Paris, Honoré Champion, coll. “Travaux et recherches des Universités rhénanes”, 2000, 202 p.
Les Sublimes Portes. D’Alexandrie à Venise, parcours dans l’Orient romanesque [Les Sublime Portes. From Alexandria to Venice, a journey through the Orient of romance] (Paris: Honoré Champion, “L’Atelier des voyages”, 2004), 326 p.
Rastaquarium. Marcel Proust et le “modern style”. Arts décoratifs et politique dans “À la recherche du temps perdu”[“Rastaquarium. Marcel Proust and the ‘Modern Style’. Decorative Arts and Politics in ‘In Search of Lost Time'”], Turnhout, Brepols, coll. “Le Champ proustien”, 2014, 192 p., 165 ill.
Souvenir des Dardanelles. Les céramiques de Çanakkale, des fouilles de Schliemann au japonisme [“Souvenir of the Dardanelles. The Ceramics of Çanakkale, from Schliemann’s Excavations to Japonisme”], Bruxelles, Académie royale de Belgique, coll. “Regards”, 2020, 140 p., 32 ill.
Publications related to Japonisme
« Héraldique, japonisme et mémoire des formes : le papier de Gilberte ou la “calligraphie parlante” de Marcel Proust [“Heraldry, Japonisme, and the Memory of Forms: Gilberte’s Paper or Marcel Proust’s ‘Speaking Calligraphy] », Littera. Revue de la Société japonaise de Langue et Littérature françaises (SJLLF), n° 2, March 2017, p. 34-47.
« Les intérieurs d’Odette, des japonaiseries aux salons blancs : à la recherche du décor perdu » [“Odette’s Interiors, from Japonisme to White Salons: In Search of the Lost Décor”], Littera. Revue de la Société japonaise de Langue et Littérature françaises [“Littera. Journal of the Japanese Society for French Language and Literature”] (SJLLF), n° 5, March 2020, p. 125-139.
« Philippe Burty contre Castagnary. Philologie du japonisme, “ce caprice de dilettante blasé” followed by : « Le “jeu japonais”, de Marcel Proust à Ernest Chesneau » [“Philippe Burty against Castagnary. Philology of Japonisme, ‘This Caprice of the Blasé Dilettante’ followed by: ‘The “Japanese Game”, from Marcel Proust to Ernest Chesneau'”], Académie royale de langue et de littérature française de Belgique.
Communication to the monthly séance of 13 March 2021 (https://www.arllfb.be/ebibliotheque/communications/basch13032021.pdf), 48 p.
« Ernest Chesneau, the First Critic of Degas’s Japonisme » [エルネスト・シェノーの美術批評再考―英仏文芸交流からジャポニスムへ], in Takagi Yoko, Murai Noriko, Koma Kyoko and Fujihara Sadao (éd.), Japonisme Reconsidered. The Other and the Self in Representations of Japanese Culture, [ジャポニスムを考える―日本文化表象をめぐる他者と自己] Tokyo, Society for the Study of Japonisme-Shibunkaku Publishing, 2022, p. 185-203.
« Détournement de japonisme. La Poupée japonaise de Félicien Champsaur et Raphael Kirchner » [“Subversion of Japonisme. The Japanese Doll by Félicien Champsaur and Raphael Kirchner,”] , in Georges Forestier, Aurélie Foglia, Henri Scepi, Nicolas Wanlin, Juliette Kirscher (ed.), « Une transparence du regard adéquat » [“A Transparency of the Adequate Gaze”]. Mélanges en l’honneur de Bertrand Marchal [Essays in Honor of Bertrand Marchal], Paris, Hermann, 2023, p. 567-586.
« Le “boudoir des combles Japonico-Néerlando-Britanniquo Blue and White.” Au pays du japonisme » [“The ‘Attic Boudoir Japonico-Dutch-British Blue and White.’ In the Land of Japonisme”], in Whistler, l’effet papillon, Laura Valette and Florence Calame-Levert (dir.), Milan-Rouen, Silvana Editoriale-Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, 2024, p. 26-31.
Le Néo-Japonisme, 1945-1975[“Neo-Japonisme”], edited by Sophie Basch and Michael Lucken, Paris, Hermann, coll. « Japon », in press (January 2025).