Product Overview
This extensive publication, complete with hundreds of illustrations by such renowned artists as Carl Larsson, Edvard Munch, Vilhelm Hammershi, Helene Schjerfbeck, Pekka Halonen, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Gerhard Munthe, Pietro Krohn, and Frida Hansen, among others, offers an unprecedented study of Japanese influence on the visual arts in the Nordic countries. This unlikely diffusion of Japanese culture, known collectively as Japonisme, became increasingly apparent in England, France, and elsewhere in Europe during the 19thcentury, although nowhere was the influence seemingly as pervasive as it was throughout the Nordic countries. The bookreveals how the widespread interest in Japanese aesthetics helped to establish notions of a fundamental unity between the arts and transformed the regions visual vocabulary. The adoption of Japanese motifs and styles in Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmarkgave a necessary cohesion to their existing artistic language,creating a vital balance within and among all of thedecorative arts.
