テオドール・デュレの日本・中国旅行と印象派への寄与

概要

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Theodore Duret (1838-1927) was a Republican journalist-cum-art-ciritic in the latter half of the 19th century France. He played an important role in the birth and growth of the Impressionism through his strong assertion of the importance of Japanese woodlock prints (Ukiyoe). His opinion was supported by his own experience of visiting Japan and China with Henri Cernuschi, a rich Republican entrepreneur and collector of Asian arts. Duret's description of their travel to Asian countries, especially Japan and China among others, reveals the fact that he was deeply touched by picturesque scenery of Japan an well as its urban and rural landscapes an that, on the contrary, in China, he was deeply disappointed with desolate and ruined rural landscapes and unpleasant conditions in urban centers. In other words, his traditional image of the Celestied Empire was totally shattered so that he never appreciated Chinese things when he came back to France. It can be said, therefore, that his ambigious experiences during his travel forced him to highly evaluate Japanese prints as an actual representation of picturesque scenery of Japan. In fact he encouraged the French Impressionists' admiration to the Japanese woodlock prints, a fatal impact which really caused the birth and growth of the French Impressionism.
2005-03-31