The influence of Japanese art on imaginative thinking of Edmond de Goncourt

Abstract

The article deals with the interaction of cultures of the East and the West, which is reflected in the artistic, scientific and critical discourse of the French writer, critic and collector Edmond Goncourt. He was the first who scientifically researched and described the phenomenon of ukiyo-e in Japanese art. E. Goncourt`s reflections on the essence of ukiyo-e and its prominent representatives are contained in the “Diaries” of the writer of 1880-1890s, as well as in the illustrated monographs “Hokusai” and “Utamaro”. E. Goncourt devoted considerable attention to the works of great masters of the Japanese visual arts; their work gave rise to reflection on the ways of development of European painting and literature of the late XIX century. E. Goncourt noted the desire of the Japanese ukiyo-e artists to reflect life in its entire fullness and variety, ordinary people in everyday situations, and the beauty of individual moments. According to E. Goncourt, it corresponded to the search of contemporary French artists-impressionists and novelists. Collecting scientific and critical studies of the art of Japanese ukiyo-e representatives influenced the artistic consciousness of E. Goncourt, who was looking for a new novel form in his literary career, which would adequately reflect the volatile present. E. Goncourt as a novelist used the techniques of Japanese artists and French impressionists. He created a gallery of images of women from different walks of life and described their emotional state in novels (written with his brother Jules and on his own). In his later works, E. Goncourt masterfully used portrait (conceptual, dynamic, distant and close-up, etc.), landscape (of wildlife and city) and other peculiarities of fine art techniques. External plot in later works of E. Goncourt is weakened, as the writer paid more attention to the plastic descriptions, transmission of impressions from the image of the object, floating life moments in its ordinary manifestations. Thus, the novel became a more open and dynamic form, which corresponded to the modernity.