Have you seen our new exhibition, Beyond Ukiyo-E: Japanese Woodblock Prints and their influence on Western Art?
This unique show, which opened in December 2011, includes several Western works from our Permanent Collection. And now we’re adding another impressive piece to the mix.
Gustave Leonard de Jonghe (Belgian, 1829 - 1893), L’admiratrice du Japon (The Japanese Fan), c. 1865, oil on canvas, 44 1/4 x 34 1/16 in., Gift of The Francis & Miranda Childress Foundation, AG.1988.3.1
Does this look familiar? It’s a 50 Favorite: Gustave de Jonghe’s The Japanese Fan, painted in 1865.
For the past year, it has been gracing the walls of two other museums. For the exhibition The Orient Expressed: Japan’s Influence on Western Art, 1854-1918, the Japanese Fan went on display at the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson, Mississippi from February through July 2011. Then it traveled with the exhibition to the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, where it has been on display since October.
The prevalence of oriental objects and subjects in The Japanese Fan reflects the late nineteenth-century fascination with Japanese art and aesthetics, a phenonemon called Japonisme, which was spawned by the newly opened trade routes between Europe, the United States, and Japan. The woman in the painting is clearly a fan (no pun intended) of all things Japanese. Are you?
Lucky for us, The Japanese Fan comes back to the Cummer in early February and will be installed in the Stein Gallery soon after.
Want to learn more about this fascinating work, and the West’s admiration for Japanese art and culture? Come see the exhibition! Beyond Ukiyo-e is open until August 9th 2012.
