La Japonaise (painting)
La Japonaise is an 1876 oil painting by the French Impressionist painter Claude Monet. Painted on a 231.8 cm × 142.3 cm (91+1/4 in × 56 in) canvas, the full-length portrait depicts a European woman in a red uchikake kimono standing in front of a wall decorated by Japanese fans. Monet's first wife Camille Doncieux modeled for the painting.
The painting was first exhibited in the second Impressionism exhibition of 1876, and is now exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Description In the painting, Monet depicts Camille in a padded, heavily decorated red kimono (an uchikake) belonging to a famous Japanese actor, standing on Japanese-style tatami mat and in front of a wall decorated by Japanese uchiwa fans. Camille, whose hair was dark, wears a blonde wig, emphasizing her identity as a European woman, indicating that the painting shows the performance and appropriation of Japanese culture rather than an authentic Japanese environment.
Camille's body, turned in profile, shows her face turned towards the viewer, a gesture likely inspired by gestures found in traditional Japanese dance; illustrations depicting Japanese dance, such as Charles Wirgman's A Japanese dinner party, were popular in Europe at the time, and would likely have been available for Monet to draw inspiration from.
Monet placed particular importance in the depiction of the detailed samurai embroidery on Camille's robe, positioning the face of the samurai in the near centre of the canvas. The depiction of the samurai, with dark hair, a stern facial expression and a strong grip on the sword in his belt, contrast Camille - with blonde hair, holding a fan delicately and smiling - strongly, drawing attention again to the difference between the "Japanese" setting and the European woman within it. Camille's raised right hand holds a folding fan in the colours of the French flag, which also appeared in one of Renoir's paintings.
The contrast between Camille and the painting's faux-cultural setting is increased further by a backdrop of uchiwa fans. Though most depict only hazy Impresssionist landscapes, with one on the left showing a red-crowned crane, a fan to the right of Camille's raised right hand shows a Japanese woman wearing a kimono and a traditional hairstyle, depicted on a rosy red background. Separated from the others with a contrasting background, it draws attention as the woman's face tilts in the opposite direction to Camille's, echoing the other. While Camille looks out at the viewer with a smile, the woman in the fan shows an almost astonished facial expression looking at her European counterpart.