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Art Through Time: A Global View

Converging Cultures Compare: What Makes a Work of Art Appealing to a Foreign Audience?

The Fitting

The Fitting
Artist / Origin: Mary Cassatt (American, 1844–1926)
Region: Europe
Date: 1890–91
Period: 1800 CE – 1900 CE
Material: Drypoint and aquatint etching on off-white, moderately thick, moderately textured laid paper
Medium: Prints, Drawings, and Photography
Dimensions: (Image) H: 14 13/16 in. (37.6 cm.), W: 10 1/8 in. (25.7 cm.); (Sheet) H: 17 ¼ in. (43.8 cm.), W: 12 in. (30.5 cm.)
Location: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
Credit: Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum

 

Chûbon no zu (Picture of the Middle Class)

Chûbon no zu (Picture of the Middle Class)
Artist / Origin: Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, 1753–1806)
Region: East Asia
Date: Edo period, ca. 1794–95
Period: 1400 CE – 1800 CE
Material: Oban woodcut
Medium: Prints, Drawings, and Photography
Dimensions: H: 14 1/5 in. (36.3 cm.), W: 10 in. (25.3 cm.)
Location: Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art. Prints and Photographs. Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations. The New York Public Library, New York, New York
Credit: Courtesy of the New York Public Library/Art Resource, NY

What makes a work of art appealing to a foreign audience?

After Japan opened up to trade and political relations with the wider world after the mid-nineteenth century, cultural exchange with the West boomed. Japanese prints, in particular, were greeted avidly by European and American audiences and artists alike. But this was not the first time artistic ideas were traded between East and West. The very Japanese prints that so fascinated viewers in France, England, and the U.S. were themselves influenced to varying degrees by Western aesthetics.

Questions to Consider

  • Mary Cassatt was heavily influenced by Japanese prints like the one seen above. What elements does Cassatt borrow from the Japanese aesthetic in The Fitting? Where does she depart from the model offered by Japanese art?
  • Both Cassatt and Utamaro dealt with class issues in their work. How does each artist distinguish the social positions of his or her figures? Does there seem to be any shared language of class in the two works?
  • Why do you think works such as this one by Utamaro held such great appeal for Cassatt and her contemporaries? What role do you think the print medium played in the spread of Japonisme?

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Art Through Time: A Global View

Credits

Produced by THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG. 2009.
  • Closed Captioning
  • ISBN: 1-57680-888-2