“Girl in a Japanese Costume”
“Girl in a Japanese Costume” is an oil on canvas portrait painting by the American Impressionist artist, William Merritt Chase, from circa 1890.
After 200 years of isolation, Japan opened up to the west in the 1850s and 1860s, forming trade partnerships. The sudden influx of Japanese goods, such as woodcuts, woodblock prints, screens, fans, porcelain, and clothing, had a large impact on the Western world. After the World’s Fair in 1862, Japanese art became extremely popular and influenced many artists of the day, including Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Vincent Van Gogh.
This portrait by Chase reflects the growing interest in the Japanese style, known as Japonisme. This style heavily influenced the Aesthetic Movement of the late nineteenth century, which Chase and his colleague, James McNeill Whistler, were both part of.
William Merritt Chase acquired a collection of Japanese costumes and textiles for the sitters in his studio. By the late 1880s and early 1890s, he painted several portraits of women in Japanese dress, often his daughters. The girl in this portrait dressed in Japanese costume represents what would have been cutting-edge fashion in its day.
“Girl in a Japanese Costume” is currently on display at the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York, in the United States.
For more on William Merritt Chase, please visit his short biography here.
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