Japonisme in Polish Pictorial Arts (1885 – 1939)

NimbusRomNo9L-ReguType Thesis
URL http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/6205/
Date 2013
Citation Spawski, Piotr (2013) Japonisme in Polish Pictorial Arts (1885 – 1939).
PhD thesis, University of the Arts London.
Creators Spawski, Piotr
alternatively contact [email protected].
Unless otherwise stated, copyright owned by the author
Piotr Spawski
Submitted as a partial requirement for the degree of doctor of philosophy awarded by the University of the Arts London
Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN)
Chelsea College of Art and Design
University of the Arts London
July 2013
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Abstract
This thesis chronicles the development of Polish Japonisme between 1885 and 1939. It focuses mainly on painting and graphic arts, and selected aspects of photography, design and architecture. Appropriation from Japanese sources triggered the articulation of new visual and conceptual languages which helped forge new art and art educational paradigms that would define the modern age.
Starting with Polish fin-de-siècle Japonisme, it examines the role of Western European artistic centres, mainly Paris, in the initial dissemination of Japonisme in Poland, and considers the exceptional case of Julian aat, who had first-hand experience of Japan. The second phase of Polish Japonisme (1901-1918) was nourished on local, mostly Cracovian, infrastructure put in place by the ‘godfather’ of Polish Japonisme eliks Manggha JasieMski. His pro-Japonisme agency is discussed at length. Considerable attention is given to the political incentive provided by the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war in 1904, which rendered Japan as Poland’s ally against its Russian oppressor. The first two decades of the 20th century are regarded as the ‘Renaissance’ of Japonisme in Poland, and it is this part of the thesis that explores Japanese inspirations as manifested in the genres of portraiture, still life, landscape, representations of flora and fauna, erotic imagery, and caricature. Japonisme in graphic and applied graphic arts, including the poster, is also discussed.
The existence of the taste for Japanese art in the West after 1918 is less readily acknowledged than that of the preceding decades. The third phase of Polish Japonisme (1919-1939) helps challenge the tacit conviction that Japanese art stopped functioning as an inspirational force around 1918. This part of the thesis examines the nationalisation of heretofore private resources of Japanese art in Cracow and Warsaw, and the inauguration of official cultural exchange between Poland and Japan. Polish Japonisme within École de Paris, both before 1918 and thereafter, inspired mainly by the painting of Foujita Tsuguharu, is an entirely new contribution to the field. Although Japanese inspirations frequently appeared in Polish painting of the interwar period, it was the graphic arts that became most receptive to the Japanese aesthetic at that time. The thesis includes a case study of Leon Wyczókowski’s interbellum Japonisme, and interprets it as patriotic transpositions of the work of Hiroshige and the Japanese genre of meisho-e. Japonisme in Polish design and architecture is addressed only in the context of the creation of Polish national style in design (1901-1939).
Art schools in Britain and America became important centres for Japonisme at the beginning of the 20th century. The thesis considers the case of Cracow Academy of Fine Arts, which due to radical changes introduced by its new director Julian Faat, became an important centre for the dissemination of the taste for Japanese art in Poland.
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Acknowledgements
For supervision, guidance and direction in this research I should like to thank: my Director of Studies, Professor Toshio Watanabe, my Second Supervisor, Dr Yuko Kikuchi, and my former Third Supervisor Ms Rebecca Salter. I am indebted to them for their invaluable advice, constructive criticism, and availability, but also for including me in the AHRC research project Forgotten Japonisme: The Taste for Japanese Art in Britain and America, 1920s-1950s, which provided me with the tremendous opportunity to interact with accomplished scholars in the field, and to test my findings on the forums of the project’s workshops, conferences and other stimulating events. I have also benefited immensely from participating in the seminars and lectures organised by the Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN). I should also like to express my gratitude to the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for financing my research, and The University of the Arts London (UAL) for enabling me to study on a full-time basis.
I would like to mention that it was my MA research supervisor, Dr John Carpenter of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), who drew my attention to the subject of Polish Japonisme and who generously supported my application for the PhD course. For directing me to the ideal supervisors at Chelsea College of Art and Design, I remain grateful to Professor Craig Clunas and Professor Timon Screech.
This research would have never been conducted without the assistance and encouragement of many people in Poland, Japan, Britain, Canada and the USA: Professor Stanley Abe, Eva Broer, Dr Kendall Brown, Anna Budzaek, Teresa Dudek-Bujarek, Emily Eastgate-Brink, Sabina Frankowicz, Dr Zofia oubiew, Aleksandra Görlich, Joanna Grabowska, Dr Christine Guth, Agnieszka Janczyk, Kinga Kawczak, Agnieszka Kluczewska-Wójcik, Anna Król, Professor Lidia Kuchtówna, Krystyna Kulig-Janarek, Professor Jerzy Malinowski, Halina Marcinkowska, Donald Mcillivray, Wojciech Musia, Professor Toshiharu Omuka, Beata Pacana, Beata Romanowicz, Regina Spawska, Dr Sarah Teasley, Izolda Vwitaa, Joanna Wasilewska, Renata Weiss, and Dr Micha Woaniak.
For access to their collections and databases, I thank the staff of the following institutions: The National Museum in Cracow, The manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology in Cracow, The National Museum in Warsaw, The Archive of Cracow Academy of Fine Arts, Wojciech Weiss Foundation Museum in Cracow, The Jagiellonian Library in Cracow, The Library of The National Museum in Cracow, The Museum of The History of Cracow, Leon Wyczókowski Museum in Bydgoszcz, Bielsko-Biaa Museum, The Princes Czartoryskis Library in Cracow, The Theatre Museum in Warsaw, Chelsea College of Art and Design Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, The British Library, and School of Oriental and African Studies.
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Contents
Chapter I – The Historiography of Polish Japonisme…………………………………….33 Chapter II – Foreign Models: Fin-de-Siècle Japonisme in Poland 1885-1900…………..46 Chinese and Japanese Art in Poland 16th -19th Century……………………………...46
Heralds and Forerunners: Laying the Groundwork for Japonisme…………………..51 The Patriarch of Modernism Stanisaw Witkiewicz and Japan…………….51 First Encounters: Paris, Munich, Vienna and St Petersburg………………...55 Early Manifestations in Painting……………………………………………56 Julian aat’s Journey to ast Asia and his Japonisme……………………...57 Under the Auspices of auguin Wadysaw VlewiMski…………………….64 Józef ChemoMski’s Landscape and its Relation to Japanese Art…………...68 Olga BoznaMska’s arly Japonisme The Cracow and Munich Years……...69
From Paris and Vienna to Cracow Wojciech Weiss’s irst Responses to Japanese Art………………………………………………………...74
The Landscape Paves the Way: Appropriations of Japan in Landscape Painting before 1900………………………………………………..82
Chapter III – Home-grown Polish Japonisme 1901-1918………………………………...89 The odfather of Polish Japonisme eliks Manggha JasieMski…………………….89 JasieMski’s Japanese Art Collection…………………………………………90 Negative Varsovian Reception……………………………………………...92 The Move to Cracow………………………………………………………..93 The Infrastructure and Geography of Polish Japonisme……………………………..94 Cracow Academy of Fine Arts…………………………………………..….95 The Association of Polish Artists Sztuka………………………………..…102 Michalik’s Den Café and the Green Balloon Cabaret……………………..103 The Cradle of Warsaw Japonisme: Chimera…………………………..…..104 Collections of Japanese Art…………………………………………..……105 Exhibitions of Japanese Art……………………………………………......108 Japonisme and Politics: The Artistic Response to the Russo-Japanese War……….110 The Russo-Japanese War and the Polish Question………………………...110 Józef Pisudski and Roman Dmowski in Japan……………………………111
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The Boom in Literature on Japan………………………………………….112 Political Satire and the Grotesque: the Japonisme of Witold Wojtkiewicz..114 KoWciuszko Mound as Mt Fuji Stanisaw WyspiaMski’s Landscapes…..…117 JasieMski’s Wawel à la japonaise by Karol Frycz………...……………….120 A Scandal in Paris Bolesaw Biegas……………………………………....121 The Renaissance of Polish Japonisme 1901-1918………………………………….122
The Japanese Artefact: Japonaiserie and Still Life à la japonaise………...122 Shunga, Bijin-ga, the Nude and Fémme Fatale……………………………130 Landscapes of the Soul…………………………………………………….138 Polish Kachô-ga……………………………………………………………151 Caricature…………………………………………………………………..156 Japonisme in Graphic Arts…………………………………………………158 The Poster and Applied Graphic Arts……………………………………...169
Chapter IV – Japonisme in Poland Between the Wars 1919-1939……………………...173 Historical Context and New Resources for Japonisme……………………………..173 Feliks JasieMski’s Collection Becomes National Property………………...173 National Museum in Warsaw and its Collection of Japanese Art…………175 The Popularisation of Japanese Art and Culture…………………………..177 Polish Artists in Japan……………………………………………………………....180 Kazimierz Zieleniewski…………………………………………………....180 Karol Józef Frycz…………………………………………………………..182 Early Japonisme…………………………………………………...182 Journey to China and Japan……………………………………….184 rycz’s Publications on ast Asia………………………………...186 East Asian Inspirations in rycz’s Theatre Design……………….188 Ze’ev Wilhelm Aleksandrowicz…………………………………………...191 Polish Japonisme within École de Paris……………………………………………192
Pre-war École de Paris…………………...………………………………...196 San-sui, Yamato-e, Rimpa and Eugeniusz Zak’s Landscape……...196 Ichimatsu Ningyô by Gustaw Gwozdecki and Others…………….199
Interbellum École de Paris………………………………………………....203 Utamaro, Harunobu, Sumi-e, and the Japaneseness of oujita’s Painting…………………………………………………...203 oujita’s Japanese mulators in Paris…………………………….205 Polish Foujitaesque Japonisme……………………………………206 Józef Hecht’s Bestiary…………………………………………….208
Manifestations of Japonisme in Interwar Painting…………………………………209 Continuation of Polish Modernist Japonisme……………………………...209
Buddhist Parable in Stanisaw Ignacy Witkiewicz’s Christian Allegory….211
Japonisme Intensifies in Interwar Graphic Arts……………………………………212 The Interwar Japonisme of Leon Wyczókowski…………………………………..216 Hiroshige, Calligraphy and Wyczókowski’s Portraits of Trees…………..217 From Meisho-e to an Act of Patriotism……………………………………219
The Vistula as the Polish Tôkaidô…………………………………………222
Asian Stimuli for a Nationalistic Construct: Japanese and Javanese Ingredients of
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Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………..239
Appendices………………………………………………………………………………….273
II. Review of Literature on European and American Japonisme………...318
Review of Japonisme Scholarship 1990-2010…………………….320
III. List of Abbreviations………………………………………..……………326 IV. List of Illustrations ………………………………………….……………328 V. Illustrations ……………………………………………….………………418
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Introduction
My interest in Japan, and its culture began in the late 1990s, when I embarked on a
BA course in Japanese and Art History at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS),
University of London. It was during the second year spent studying at Kyoto University of
Foreign Studies in Japan, that my interest gained momentum. Upon return to SOAS, I made a
resolution to follow my BA course with an MA programme in Art History. At that time I
began to be increasingly interested in the cultural and artistic relationships between Japan and
the West.
The research for my MA thesis: ‘The Pictorial Biography of the Zen Priest Dôgen
from the National Museum in Cracow: An Example of Tokugawa Sôtô Sectarian Propaganda’
(2005) took me back to Poland, where I grew up. It was then that I came to the realisation
that, to my surprise, there was an intriguing history of the taste for Japanese art in Poland.
One of the largest collections of Japanese art in Europe, assembled by Feliks Manggha
JasieMski over a century ago, was a tangible reminder of the Polish Japanese craze. Towards
the end of my MA course, the subject of Polish Japonisme was suggested to me by my MA
supervisor Dr. John Carpenter as a potential direction for my future research. At first, it
appeared that there would not be enough material to structure a PhD project. In fact,
throughout my entire primary, secondary and university education in Poland, I never came
across any references to Polish Japonisme, but it soon dawned on me that much of Polish art
of the Young Poland and the interwar periods drew upon Japanese art. During the second half
of the 20th century, the subject of Polish Japonisme seems to have been a forgotten episode of
Polish history. With few notable exceptions (discussed in the literature review), it received
little attention in communist Poland, in academia and otherwise.
Eventually in 1994, at the instigation of the world renowned film director Andrzej
Wajda, the Manngha Centre of Japanese Art and Technology was founded in Cracow. It
marked the beginning of a new wave of Polish interest in Japan and its culture.
The Definition of Japonisme and Related Terminology
From the various terms that have been used historically to designate the phenomenon
under investigation (Japonisme, Japonaiserie, Japonnerie, Japanism, Japonismus),
‘Japonisme’ was selected as the most appropriate denomination for the present thesis. The
term was coined by Philippe Burty, who defined it as ‘the study of the art and genius of
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Japan’.1 As shown by Toshio Watanabe, Burty’s definition of Japonisme should be
interpreted in a broader sense as ‘a pro-Japan attitude and its manifestations in the West’,
rather than merely the study of Japanese art (Watanabe 2012, 215). Within the field of art
history, the term ‘Japonisme’ has usually been applied with reference to the late 19th-century
predominantly French fashion for Japan which manifested itself primarily in visual culture.
Throughout this thesis, however, ‘Japonisme’ represents a considerably wider meaning in
more than one sense. Firstly, as opposed to being used to describe the specific 19th-century
French trend in art and popular culture, it denotes a taste for Japanese art and aesthetics in
general without any confinement to and particular historical period. Secondly, it signifies all
manifestations of that taste, including inspirations in visual and other arts, art collecting,
scholarship, other types of writing on the subject of Japan, and even art education. Thirdly, it
is used in Polish, rather than French context.
The term ‘Japonaiserie’, introduced for the first time by the oncourt brothers as a
substitute for chinoiserie (Ikegami 1967, 6), is used here to refer to the incorporation of actual
Japanese works of art and other objects d’art into western (Polish) works of art. Used in this
way, ‘Japonaiserie’ is a narrower designation than ‘Japonisme’.
The historical uses of the various above-mentioned terms referring to the
phenomenon in question have not been consistent2 and it was only from 1980 that the term
‘Japonisme’ gained a relative supremacy. The reason for such a precise date as the turning
point is the fact that the four major publications on the subject that came out that year used
the term ‘Japonisme’. Interestingly, with the diversification of the study of the taste for
Japanese art into areas other than rance, the ascendancy of the term ‘Japonisme’ is being
challenged. One of the major outcomes of the recent AHRC research project carried out by
the Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN) at the University of
the Arts London called Forgotten Japonisme: the Taste for Japanese Art in Britain and the
USA: 1920s-1950s was the reassessment of the term ‘Japonisme’. With the intention of giving
agency to the autonomous Anglo-American phenomenon, which took place in the English-
speaking world of Britain and North America, the organisers opted for a move away from the
French centrality, eventually altering the title of the project to include the English translation
of the rench term ‘Japonisme’ Trans-war Japanism: Shaping Taste in Britain, Japan and
1 The term was used first in a series of articles entitled ‘Japonisme’ published in the journal La Renaissance littéreire et artistique between 1872 and 1873, the definition of Japonisme as ‘the study of the art and genius of Japan’, however, was formulated by Burty in a 1875 article ‘Japonism’ published in Britain.
2 For the discussion of the uses of the term ‘Japonisme’ in a historical context and with reference to other similar terms see: Watanabe 2012.
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North America: 1910s-1960s. Considering that the Polish strand of the taste for Japanese art
and aesthetics stemmed out – at least in its initial phases and in the case of the École de Paris
even in the interwar period – from the French precedent, the French-origin designation
‘Japonisme’ was chosen for the present study.
Besides the terms ‘Japonisme’ and ‘Japonaiserie’, the derivative noun ‘Japoniste’ is
also used throughout the thesis to describe a person/artist etc. who displays a pro-Japan
attitude. inally, the term ‘Japonisant’ functions as an adjective derived from ‘Japonisme’.
Methodology and Theory
The prime rationale for this work was to present the phenomenon of Polish Japonisme
in pictorial arts between 1885 and 1939 in as comprehensive a manner as possible, mapping
out the relevant facts and provide an understanding of this phenomenon. To achieve this goal
it was necessary to look beyond the body of already acknowledged examples of Japanese
inspirations and to attempt to unearth those that have not been so far classified as such.
Considering that the subject of Japanese inspirations in Polish art is a relatively new area of
research, the objective of compiling a large corpus of Japonisme material for the study of the
subject was all the more relevant. Thus the identification of such works by Polish artists
became an important part of the research process. Although cataloguing Polish Japonisme
was not regarded as an ultimate goal in itself, amassing abundant and heterogeneous material
relating to the trend in question was imperative to the task of forming a comprehensive
panoramic view. Consequently, the method employed during the initial phase of the research
process, which consisted predominantly in data collection, could be termed as an
‘archaeological’ approach. Considering that during the recent decades a considerable number
of Polish artworks from the relevant period have resurfaced, the objective of detecting
previously unknown Japonisme works appeared all the more attainable. For instance, the
oeuvre of Olga BoznaMska, as known to scholarship before the 1990s, with the exception of
several paintings, had not allowed for a striking case of the artist’s Japanese inclinations. Due
to recently re-emerged paintings, however, her profound Japonisme came to light in the 2006
exhibition at the Manggha Centre of Japanese Art & Technology (Król 2006). This
‘archaeological’ methodology had previously been employed, albeit on a smaller scale, by
ukasz Kossowski in his pioneering research of Polish Japonisme (1981) and by Siegfried
Wichmann for the identification of Japonisme in Euro-American art (1980).
The first steps of the project revolved around the analysis of existing literature on the
subject with a special focus on identifying collections likely to contain relevant artworks.
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Prior to conducting the search in museums, galleries and private collections, the boundaries of
what Japonisme is had to be clearly defined. Rather than adopting the narrow definition of
Japonisme understood as Japanese inspirations in western art, in this case Polish, a much
wider interpretation of the term was adopted, whereby all manifestations of the taste for Japan
and Japanese art were also embraced. Therefore, the search in archives and collections had
the broad objective of finding all types of evidence of the taste for Japanese art: Japonisme
artworks, writings relating to the subject, photographic documentation, and of course
collections of Japanese art.
Broadly speaking, there are two types of Japanese inspirations in painting and graphic
arts. The representation of Japanese objects, Japanese genre scenes, and the inclusion of other
direct visual ‘quotations’ of Japanese culture constitutes the first of the two and is
comparatively easier to discern in collections of art. Identifying examples of this category
required the knowledge of what can be classified as Japanese. It is important to note that,
when sifting through collections of art, besides Japanese inclusions, Chinese ones were an
additional criterion of search. During the period under research, Chinese objects were
frequently depicted alongside Japanese ones, and even more often, due to the lack of
familiarity with East Asian culture, they were mistaken by artists for Japanese ones.
Therefore, an eye for both Japanese and Chinese detail was a useful tool in unearthing
Japonisme works.
The other category of Japanese inspirations in pictorial arts consists of works that
employ formal solutions and pictorial devices borrowed from Japanese artistic traditions,
from particular Japanese artists and occasionally from specific Japanese paintings or prints.3
This variety of Japonisme is considerably more problematic to detect for two reasons. Firstly,
to the uninformed eye, these works do not betray obvious references to Japan, and could pass
undetected when scrutinising collections of art. Secondly, by no means can all examples of
Polish works of art employing those formal or stylistic devices that have been acknowledged
as borrowings from Japanese art be regarded as Japonisme. Because Japonisme had
developed earlier in Western Europe than it reached Poland, many of the artistic devices
originally appropriated from Japan by French, British, Austrian, German and other Western
European artists had infiltrated the European art scene by the beginning of the twentieth
century. As a consequence, in many cases, these ‘secondary’ Japanese borrowings in Polish
art cannot in all cases be classified as Japonisme, in other words, they cannot be treated as the
results of conscious and direct recourses to Japanese art as an inspirational source. The search
3 For the list of the formal pictorial devices see pages 18 and…