Insights

Famous Collections: The collection of Claude Monet

by: Caroline Moore

“Claude Monet is the artist who has made the most inventive and original contribution to landscape painting… Among our landscape painters [he] was the first to have the boldness to go as far as the Japanese in the use of colour,” Théodore Duret, Japanese print collector and close friend of Monet, wrote in 1880.

Famous Collections: The collection of Vincent Van Gogh

by: Caroline Moore

"All my work is based to some extent on Japanese art." - Vincent van Gogh wrote in a letter to his brother Theo in 1888 while living in Arles, France.

Famous Collections: The collection of Frank Lloyd Wright

by: Caroline Moore

Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural legacy includes utilizing organic shapes and geometry found in nature in his plans, known as the “Prairie style,” and incorporating modernism into American living. Traditional Japanese printmaking typically doesn’t come to one’s mind when evaluating Wright’s career and work. However, the architect was a life-long admirer of Japanese art and culture and collector of ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) prints. He discovered a wealth of inspiration from Japanese aesthetic that he incorporated into his architectural works. With the recent publication of Julia Meech’s book titled Frank Lloyd Wright and the Art of Japan - The Architect’s Other Passion (2007) and the art world’s interest in Eastern and Western hybridity of culture and influence, Wright’s relationship with Japan has brought to bear a new understanding of the architect’s work and the true underlying sources of modernism in Occidental culture.