Japan's Love for Impressionism

At the end of the nineteenth century Japanese collectors began to put together Impressionist collections of outstanding quality. This development began with the industrialist Kojiro Matsukata, who was a close friend of Claude Monet. Today there are several distinguished collections that are shown in renowned public and private museums. A selection of exquisite works from these Japanese museums now returns exclusively to Europe. At the heart of the exhibition and the book are masterpieces by French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, among them Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Gauguin, Bonnard, Pissarro, Renoir, Signac, Sisley and van Gogh. Their paintings are complemented by a selection of works by Japanese artists from the period before 1920 that laid the foundation for modern, Western-inspired Japanese art. Together, they tell the story of the interaction and two-way artistic influence between Europe and Japan from a new perspective.