Image: Yokoyama Taikan (1868-1958), Mont Fuji en été, 1936, Couleurs sur soie, 40,5 x 69 cm, Tokyo, musée mémorial Yokoyama Taikan
Musée des impressionnismes Giverny will present ‘TAIKAN / MONET. Impressions japonaises’ from 17 July to 1 November 2027.
The exhibition will place Claude Monet in dialogue with Yokoyama Taikan. Monet challenged academic conventions through Impressionism, while Taikan was a pioneering figure in nihonga, a Japanese artistic movement that emerged in the 1880s during the Meiji era.
Nature, repeated motifs and gardens form points of connection in the presentation. Taikan sought to capture nature’s spiritual essence, while Monet concentrated on visual perception through immersion in the landscape. Monet repeatedly painted water lilies, while Taikan returned to the image of Mount Fuji. Their gardens in Giverny and Tokyo were conceived as sources of inspiration and extensions of their art.
The exhibition is produced in partnership with the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Museum in Tokyo. It is curated by Cyrille Sciama, director general of Musée des impressionnismes Giverny and chief heritage curator, and Yokoyama Yuko, curator at the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Museum.
An illustration for the exhibition is Taikan’s ‘Mount Fuji in Summer’ (1936), colours on silk, 40.5 × 69 cm, held by the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Museum in Tokyo.
