>

WW'HI

\
l

§E§ WWWWWWWIINAMIWIINH

Date

MICHIGAN sun;-

I II IIIIIII

3129

IBRARIES

IIIIIIIIII IIIII IIIIIIIIII IIII I

LIBRARY

Michigan State
University

“I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is to certify that the

thesis entitled

THE INFLUENCE OF UKIYO-E WOODCUTS ON
THE PRINTS OF ARTHUR WESLEY DOW

presented by
Kaoru Watanabe

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

M.A. History of Art

degree in

 

 

a or p fessor
Phylg‘)‘ {‘10

September 3, 1996

 

0-7 639

MS U is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution

 

PLACE ll RETURN BOX to remove We checkout from your record.
TO AVOID FINES return on or before date due.

DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE
Itmgeliflfi'fi '

 

 

 

 

“2‘31

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MSU le An Affirmative Action/Ewe! Opportunity Inetttulon
WMA

THE INFLUENCE OF UKIYO-E WOODCUTS ON
THE PRINTS OF ARTHUR WESLEY DOW

By

Kaoru Watanabe

A THESIS

Submitted To
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Art

1996

ABSTRACT

THE INFLUENCE OF UKIYO-E WOODCUTS ON
THE PRINTS OF ARTHUR WESLEY DOW

By

Kaoru watanabe

Arthur Wesley Dow, an artist and art educator who contributed
to lead the development of Modernism in American art, established a
style for his woodcut prints through the influence of Japanese art,
especially Ukiyo-e prints and Zen ink.paintings. The influence of
Japanese art can be observed more clearly in his prints than in
this paintings; therefore, his prints will be the focus of this
study in order to expand the existing scholarship on the influence
of Japanese art on Dow's artistic theories and style. This project
suggests that DOW‘WaS much more inspired by Hiroshige's poetic
expression of natural scenery than that of any other Ukiyo-e
artist, as Dow's adaptation of Hiroshige's compositional devices
shows. His mature style demonstrates an exploration of a harmonious
relation of colors and tones, which reflects the gradation

technique of Zen ink painting as well as Japanese Ukiyo-ejprints.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . . 1.

Chapter 1. Critical Writing About Arthur Wesley Dow .

Chapter 2. Dow's Prints And Ukiyo-E . . . 27.

Chapter 3. Idealism And Dow's Artistic Style . . . 43.
CONCLUSION . . . 58.

APPENDIX . . . 63.

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . 70.

iii

INTRODUCTION

According to Chisaburo Yamada, Japanese influence on western
art can be divided into three phases: the first phase occurred
during the Baroque and Rococo periods, dating fromIthe second half
of the 17th century to the early 19th century; the second phase was
from.the mid-19th century to the outbreak of werld.war II; and the
third phase is from 1945 to the present time.1‘western artists'
attitudes toward Japanese art during these three phases were very
different. Artists from the first phase appreciated Japanese art
only for its exoticism.and sensual beauty.2 They were not attentive
to the underlying principle of Japanese art. However, artists from
the second phase approached Japanese art with a more positive
attitude.3 They began to understand.Japanese culture as foreign,
rooted in totally different ideas than those of the west, even
though, in general, they did not appreciate the fundamental ideal
of Japanese culture.4 Artists from the third phase had strong

doubts about western civilization and industrialization. At this

 

1Chisabro Yamada, 1apgnisme_in_3;t, (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1980), p.12

3ibid., p.12
3ibid., p.13
‘ibid., p.12

stage, they genuinely understood the ideal and spirit of Japanese
culture.5

During the second phase, especially between the late 19th and
early 20th century, Japonisme, (the influence of Japanese art on
western art.) contributed to the development of modern western art.
By presenting what was seen in the west as a new sense of beauty
and a different approach to nature, Japanese art led western
artists away from academic realism.‘5 Not only Japanese but other
non—western cultures inspired.western artists to turn away from
realism. However, the important role of Japanese art was notable,
particularly in Impressionism, Post-Impressionism” Symbolism and
Art Nouveau.7

In the late 19th century the influence of Japanese art on
western artists gave birth to different movements. For the
Impressionists and the Post-Impressionists, Japanese prints, known
as Ukiyo-e, were appreciated and found to be useful. Through study
of Ukiyo-e, the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists liberated
themselves from the classical conception of modeling and
naturalistic illusionism, For example, they created paintings with
flat surfaces of brilliant color arrangements.8

In Symbolism, spiritual inspiration, which was at the heart

of Far Eastern art, stimulated symbolic realism and anti—objective

 

5ibid., p.16
5ibid., p.13
7Siegfried Wichmann, Mime (New York: Harmony Books, 1981), p.10
3ibid., p.10

reality.9 The emphasis on interior states or spirituality in
Symbolist paintings was also characteristic of Far Eastern
religious art, as found, for example, in Japanese Zen painting.

The beauty of curving lines and the naturalistic designs of
Japanese fine and applied art contributed.much to the creation to
Art Neuveau.u’Artists of this movement adapted the naturalism.of
Japanese art in order to emphasize natural beauty against the
dehumanization of industrialization and mechanization.11 A similar
development took place in the Arts and Crafts movement in America.
Even though different reactions to Japanese art created individual
styles, the inspiration of Japanese art moved western style toward
similar refinements, culminating in abstraction, which later led
western art to Modernism.

Arthur wesley Dow (1857-1922) was a modern artist and art
educator whose art style was influenced by Japonisme,
Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism.and the doctrines of
the Arts and Crafts movement.12 Inspired by Japanese art, Dow’
created a new art theory and art style that liberated both his own
and his American followers from academic and classical modes of

representation.13

 

9ibid.

1°ibid., p.15

“Yamada, 1980, p.149

12Nancy Green, AzLhuz_flga1§y_Dgu_gnd_Hi§_Injlggngg (Ithaca, New York:
Herbert F. Johnson MUseum.of Art, Cornell University, 1990) p.7

13Many scholars such as Fenollosa, Chisolm, Lancaster, Moffatt, Hook,
Meech and Green note Dow's contribution to Modern art. Their research will

be discussed later.

The influence of Japanese art on Dow's art theory and work
have been discussed by many critics and scholars. The first chapter
will review chronologically the existing research on the impact of
Japanese art on Dow to comprehend the diverse studies of this
topic. This will be followed by an analysis of the influence of
Ukiyo-e prints on Dow's prints, mainly his woodcuts, because the
influence of Japanese art can be more particularly observed in his
prints than his paintings. Since this topic has already been
examdned by Julia Meech and Gabriel weisberg, I will focus on
specific prints by the artist to analyze how he adopted the
characteristics of Japanese art from his earlier to his later
works. Finally I will discuss Japanese artists who were most
influential to Dow. Chapter 3 will consider the reasons why Dow was
attracted to Japanese art, by examining the theories of modern art
domdnant in the late 19th century and Dow's ideas about modern art.
I will conclude by examining how Japanese visual expression of
beauty, through Dow's perspective, contributed to the ideas of

modern artists and their artistic practices.

Chapter 1. Critical Writing About Arthur Wesley Dow

Many writers have discussed the influence of Japanese art on
Dow's artistic theory and his work. Two main approaches appear to
have been followed. One focuses on the relationship between
Fenollosa and Dow, clarifying how Fenollosa's thoughts, including
his interpretations of Japanese art, effected Dow's theory and his
work. The other discusses Dow's works more directly, examining how
he adopted Japanese methods of representation. Since so much
research about this topic exists, I would like to review this work
in order to clarify the influence of Japanese art on Dow's work and
to elucidate issues needing further research.

Ernest F. Fenollosa was the first critic to point out the
influence of Japanese art on Dow's woodcut prints. Fenollosa wrote
an introduction to the catalogue of Dow's first color print
exhibition at the Museum.of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1895. In the
catalogue Fenollosa praised Dow for “an independent use of oriental
principles in a free application to the rendering of characteristic
beauties in New England scenery.'14

According to Fenollosa, principles derived from Japanese

woodcut prints were new to westerners in two respects: “first, in

 

1‘Ernest F. Fenollosa, (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), Spegial_£xhibi§ipn
(Boston:

 

Alfred.Mudge & Son, 1895), p.3

that it deals with tones as shaded on, and.printed from, flat
wooden blocks; and second, in that it seeks through such tones to
reach a composition of color as solid and intense as anything
arrived at by water—color painting."15 In Western engraving,
artists historically had captured the effect of shading by hatched
lines and had not fully developed the use of color.16 Fenollosa
claimed that Dow learned how to use color with tones to reach a
solid and intense color composition through the study of old
Japanese prints.17 Although Fenollosa does not use the word, notan,
which means the contrast of light and dark, he indicates that
various tones, created by the notan technique, make effective
coloring for landscape pictures.18

Fenollosa emphasized the non-Japanese techniques of Dow's
woodcut production, even though Dow adopted Ukiyo-e methods. While
following Ukiyo-e practices, Dow performed all the necessary roles
himself. He was the designer, carver, color mixer and printer,19
roles which in Japan were performed by different laborers.
Fenollosa appreciated Dow's methods of woodcut production.
Describing them as having “no unsympathetic machinery“ and "no
division of labor between hand and hand,'20 Fenollosa agreed with
Dow's concern about handcraftsmanship expressed through Dow's

method of woodcut production.

 

15ibid., p.3
15ibid.
17ibid.
13ibid.
19ibid.
2°ibid., p.4-S

In the museum catalogue, Fenollosa did.not suggest the
reasons why Dow was inspired by Japanese art, nor why he was
concerned with the humanity expressed through his method of woodcut
production. Fenollosa concluded that Dow's woodcuts were "an epoch-
making event" in western art because Dow's individuality and
originality, although inspired by Japanese art and.methods, were
particularly new to the west.21

Bunkyo Matsuki, a Japanese art dealer who administered the
sale of Dow's estate in 1923, briefly noted the relationship
between Fenollosa and Dow.22 In the estate auction catalogue,
Matsuki suggested that Dow was inspired by Japanese art directly
from the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.23 These
collections were assembled by Fenollosa and brought to the museum
about 1887. Matsuki also applauded Dow's creation of color
woodcuts, noting that Dow alone performed the four roles of
'painter, wood engraver, pigment concocter, and.pad-printer.“24

Arthur warren Johnson published a biography of Dow in 1934.
In this book, Johnson examined the reasons why Dow was attracted to

Japanese art and the influence of Fenollosa on Dow's theories.

Thus the life of Dow turned as the tide turns. He
had drifted out of the sea of academic tradition
and into new water of inspiration. ...In May,

 

21ibid. , p.6
22The American Art Galleries. The_ImD9rtant_Rrixate_£ellectien_ef_1he_hate

I2IQ£3539:_A:§huz_fl§sley_flpn (New York: The American Art Association,
1923), 'Prefatory Nete' by Matsuki.

23ibid.
24ibid., “The Ipswich Prints' by Matsuki.

Fenollosa, with a certain flair he had for the
dramatic, opened a door and showed Dow two
magnificent screens by Okio. Dow looked at them in
silence for a space and then exclaimed, "Why can't
I do that?“ To this question Fenollosa replied,
”You can if you dare, but you don't dare!“ Dow
instantly replied, 'I will dare!‘I This pleased the
Orientalist and he exclaimed, “You will, you will,
and I dare you to do it.'25

One reason Dow searched non-western cultures, Johnson noted,
was that Dow was questioning both French academic art and the
commercialized Boston art circles.26 Dow was struggling to
establish his individual style as an American artist; therefore, he
was looking to certain kinds of art that were not rooted in

academic traditions.27

As the weeks went on he became convinced
that he was not a great painter, nor even an
American painter, nor were any of those about him,
Boston was but an artistic suburb, a backrwash of
Paris, and Paris but a hard rock of dead and
unyielding tradition.

Discouragement led as was natural to
despair. Yet even then he did not put down his
brushes but kept on in a struggle to perfect
within the limitations of his training, ...But
there was something wrong with his conception and
he realized it.

...and there [Boston Public library] he began a
course of reading and study in the history and

 

25Arthur Whrren Johnson. Arthur_Healex_Deul_Hiaterian_:_Artiat_:_Teacher
(Boston: The Ipswich Historical Society, 1934), p.56

25ibid., p.53
271mm, p.53-4

evolution of art. ...He began with Egyptian art
and paralleled it with Egyptian history.
...Then he transferred his interest to Aztec
art.28

The reason for Dow's strong attraction to Japanese art, and
that of other foreign cultures, was that he realized how much
Japanese art influenced his adored James McNeil Whistler and Joseph
Pennell. At the same time, Japanese art, particularly the works of
Hokusai, gave Dow an inspiration for composition and decorative
effects.29

As for Fenollosa's influence on Dow's artistic theories,
Johnson observed that Fenollosa's interpretation of Japanese art
was one of three critical sources for Dow's art theories as
published in C'ompositionfi30 The other two sources were Dow's own
creative work and his knowledge of composition gained through
teaching. Although Johnson recognized the influence of Fenollosa's
ideas on Dow's theory, he does not comment further on how Dow's

concepts are linked with those of Fenollosa.

These ideas (theory of composition) took origin
from three sources; first, his study of Japanese
art and the Fenollosa interpretation of the same;
secondly, his own creative work when this
knowledge had been put to the test of individual

 

23ibid., p.53
29ibid., p.54
3°ibid., p.61

10

practice; thirdly, the knowledge gained in
teaching and in contact with students.31

According to Johnson, Dow thought that art should not be a
mere truthful representation of nature but the ”expression of an
idea,'32 For the ideal work of art, harmonious composition is
essential, and is formed by the “synthesis of Line, Dark and Light
(notan) and Coloru'332Dow believed that “pictorial and ornamental
art are inseparable'“ and strove for the "synthesis of Eastern art
and western art."35

Johnson did not identify clearly the origin of these ideas or
how Dow developed them. However, given their close association one
may assume that Fenollosa's ideas about art and the characteristics
of Japanese art influenced Dow's ideas.

Lawrence W. Chisolm further researched the connection and
interaction between Fenollosa and Dow in his book, Fenollosa: Far
East and.American Chlture, published in 1963. He established the
Fenollosa - Dow relationship through a study of Fenollosa's
contribution to modern American culture.36 Chisolm discussed the
contribution of Fenollosa to Dow's theories, as found in Dow's

book, composition. This work, he said, liberated American art

 

31ibid.

32ibid.

33ibid., p.61-2

3‘ibid., p.56

35ibid., p.57

36Lawrence W. Chisolm, Egng11Qsa;_£g;_£a§§_gn§_amgzigan culture (New
Heaven, London: Yale University Press, 1963), p.117

11

education from academic realism.and toward an inclination of

idealism.37 As Chisolm stated:

Dow pointed to the universality of the grammar of
Japanese art and launched his attack on the
narrowly representational criteria of the
academies. In Fenollosan language Dow maintained
that beauty was a matter not of accurate
description but of ideal synthesis.38

...Composition, with the subtitle, 'A Series of
Exercises Selected from a New System of Art
Education.“ Dow paid tribute to Fenollosa's key
role in the formulation of the new system and
launched a frontal attack on the orthodoxies of
realistic drawing.39

In evaluating the collaboration between Fenollosa and Dow in
establishing a new art theory, Chisolm emphasized that the origin
of Fenollosa's concepts of universalism and idealism were rooted
in the writings of the sociologist and philosopher, Hegel.4°
Fenollosa's idea of universalism, the synthesis of East and

western culture, is based on Hegel's 'world-spirit.'41

"The History of the werld travels from East to
west," wrote Hegel, “for Europe is absolutely the
end of history, Asia the beginning.” In the New
werld he found “only an echo of the Old world,“
and he urged that America “abandon" the old ground

 

37ibid., p.182-3
38113m.

39ibid., p.187
‘oibidn p.25
41mm.

12

of development, for “America is the land of the
future . " 42

Chisolm also claimed that “Fenollosa's aesthetics developed
‘within this idealistic (Hegelian aesthetic) tradition!‘3 and that

Fenollosa found the ideal representation in Japanese art.44

[Japanese art] is really far superior to modern
cheap western art that describes any object at
hand mechanically, forgetting the most important
point, expression of Idea.45

By describing Dow as an artist as well as teacher, and
Fenollosa as a theorist, Chisolm.presented Dow's artistic theories
as parallel to those of Fenollosa. When Fenollosa, as an Imperial
Commissioner, prepared the curriculum for the Tokyo Fine Arts
Academy, which opened in 1889, he stressed that artists should
learn the language of line, notan (light and dark), and color.46
Chisolm wrote that Dow agreed with these ideas; "pictorial" and
'decorative' art were used equally in Japanese art, and Dow
insisted on the importance of “line, notan, and color“ as “the
trinity of power“ for designing the picture.47

Moreover, Chisolm.pointed out the idealism underlying Dow's

theories. He wrote that Dow attacked the narrow "representational

 

‘zibid.
43ibid.
4‘ibid., p.50
45ibid.
‘Gibid., p.81
47ibid., p.181

13

criteria of the academies“ in favor of the subjective
representation of Japanese art.48 Dow thought that "beauty was a
matter not of accurate description but of ideal synthesis.'49

Chisohm additionally evaluated the contributions of
Fenollosa's and Dow's theories to American art education, and the
relationship between Fenollosa's perspective of Japanese art and
Dow's artistic theories.50

Clay Lancaster also focused on the connection between
Fenollosa and Dow with respect to their artistic theories. In his
article, “Synthesis: The Artistic Theory of Fenollosa and Dow“, in
Art JDurnal (1969), Lancaster claimed that the artistic theories of
Fenollosa and Dow led to the beginning of the modern movement in
American art. He wrote: “Fenollosa and Dow stood together in
deploring the strict realism that stifled American art at the close
of the nineteenth century."51

Through an examination of Fenollosa's writings, Lancaster
concluded that Fenollosa's idealism.derived from Platonic and
Ruskinian ideas.521Fenollosa thought that “visual representation in
painting is limited to the level of a scientific text” and art,
especially painting and sculpture, ”should not be bound to mere

reflection of things seen,'53iHis idealism revealed the problems of

 

48ibid., p.182

49ibid., p.183

5°ibid., p.181-19S

51Clay Lancaster, 'Synthesis: The Artistic Theory of Fenollosa and Dow '
W, vol. 28 (1969 Spring), p.286-7

52ibid., p.287

53ibid., p.286-7

14

contemporary western art. According to Lancaster, Fenollosa thought
that his concept of artistic 'beauty' flourished in three time
periods: “The first was five centuries before Christ at Athens; the
second, twelve centuries after Christ at Hang-Chow; the third,
fifteen centuries after Christ at Florence and‘Venice,“54 After
which contemporary western art 'has run dry with imitating the
first and third.”5 As a result, he thought, Western art was
lacking the unity of subject matter and foam. To revive western
art, Fenollosa suggested studying the art of the Chinese Sung
Dynasty, which synthesized "the beauty in the subject and the
beauty in the pictorial fornn'55 Lancaster noted that Fenollosa
claimed to completely change the rigid methods of American art
education by accepting Oriental manner of representation,
particularly those of Japan and China.57

Like Chisolm, Lancaster pointed out the relationship between
Fenollosa's idealism and Dow's artistic theories, and emphasized
the tremendous influence of Japanese idealistic representation on
‘Dow's Cemposition.53.mmong the three elements of composition,
“line, light-and-dark, and color,“ Dow preferred the Japanese term.

notan, to the English words, light-and-dark, “shading" or

 

541nm. , p.287
55mm.
55mm.
57 ibid.
581mm.

15

"spotting."59 Lancaster noted that the Japanese tenm conveys the
idea of 'abstract harmony."60

By mentioning Dow's students, such as Max weber and Gerogia
O'Keeffe, Lancaster concluded that Fenollosa and Dow's artistic
theory contributed to liberating artistic styles from strict
realism and led art to abstraction.61 Both Fenollosa and Dow found
the ideal representation and abstract qualities of Japanese art,
they then adopted these principles to American art.

Frederick C. Moffatt published the first scholarly book on
Dow's philosophy and art work,.Arthur wesley Dow, in 1977. Moffatt
described the influence of Japanese art, his interaction with
Fenollosa's ideas, and the influence of current artistic doctrines,
such as Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts movement, on Dow's art
works after the 18903. The significance of Moffatt's research lies
in his examination of Dow's actual works to articulate how Dow
adopted Japanese methods of representation.

Moffatt examined the influence of certain Japanese artists on
Dow's works by comparing images from.both cultures, Dow had access
to Japanese art through Fenollosa's private collection and the
Japanese collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.62 Moffatt
was the first to point out, the influence of the Kano school and

Sesshu on Dow's sketchbooks and ink drawings during the 1890s. He

 

59ibid.

5°ibid.

51ibid.

52Frederick, c. Moffatt, A:§hu:_fl§sley_ngu (Washington D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution Press, 1977), p.51

16

presented Dow's study of Sesshu's haboku, or splashed-ink technique
and use of notan.53

Moffatt wrote that "Dow'moved easily between the realms of
Sesshu, the Kano, Ukiyo-e, and the Great Decorators.'54 According
to Moffatt, Dow studied the color and lines of the Rimpa, Ukiyo-e,
and Shijo schools as decorative sources.6S Moffatt also implied
that Dow was able to define the trinity of artistic power in line,
notan, and color through, the study of Japanese art because Dow
emphasized the flat, simple and decorative qualities of the
pictorial space resulting from these three elements.55.As for
composition, Moffatt found many Japanese devices in Dow's pictures.
such as the bird's eye perspective, the high horizon line and the
ambiguous treatment of distance}?7

Moffatt noted that Dow returned to making woodcuts in 1891
and continued to create them until late in his career. Through an
examination of Dow's woodblock prints, Moffatt identified areas of
Japanese influence.

First, Moffatt claimed that Dow followed the Japanese method
of producing woodcuts, and observed that Dow also preferred using
Japanese materials such as paper and baren,58'This was during the
time that Dow was involved with the doctrines of the English Arts

and Crafts movement.

 

63ibid., p.51.
5‘ibid., p.53
55ibid.
66ibid., p.59
57ibid., p.53-7
58ibid., p.65

17

It was clearly a “Japanese method“ Dow
followed, but one especially adapted to the
English arts-and-crafts doctrines he was
embracing. For the artist, the distinct advantages
of his operation were proved by its calculated
simplicity its freedom from a requirement for a
division of labor, and its results - prints that
stood as independent works of art, not facsimiles
of paintings.69

While following traditional Ukiyo-e methods, Dow was “freed from a
requirement of a division of labor."70 His aversion to machinery
and his preference for handmade qualities emphasized a sense of
humanity parallel to that found in the philosophy of the Arts-and-
Crafts movement.

Moffatt focused on the differences between the prints made
prior to 1895 and the prints made after that year. For example, the
early prints are smaller, they are more vertical in composition and
they are crowded with images that are 'treated.with a brocade of
vivid coloring."71 Later prints show simpler compositions, a
preference for panoramic views, and.more concern with varied
textures.72

Moffatt identified the influence of Art Neuveau and the Arts
and Crafts movement on Dow's prints.73 Dow's connection with Art

Nouveau and its abstract qualities can be observed in his

 

59ibid. , p.66
7°ibid.
71ibid.
72ibid.
73ibid. , p.76

18

lithographic poster for.Modern.Art, the cover page designs for
Fenollosa's journal, The Lotos, and illustrations for Dow's book,
Composition." Moffatt claimed that the tendency toward Art
Nouveau aesthetics increased in these later works compared to Dow's
earlier works.

Moffatt also discussed Dow's involvement with Aestheticism.
Dow was attracted to Japanese art, because Dow found the beauty in
it to be a “real refinement of perception,“ a "higher aesthetic
sense," “pure atmosphere,” “extreme refinement of feeling,“ and
'art of perfect taste.'75'These aspects of beauty were exactly what
Dow wanted to represent in his pictures.

Through Moffatt's research, one can clearly see which
Japanese artists particularly influenced Dow, what Dow learned from
Japanese representation, how Dow applied these principles to his
works, and why Dow was attracted to Japanese art.76

In her dissertation, completed in 1987, Dorothy Hook focused
on the philosophical interaction between Fenollosa and Dow. Hook
stated that although they exchanged ideas to establish a new art
theory and educational system, the basic concepts came from
Fenollosa's idealism, universalism.and aestheticism..7'7

Hook's thesis examined documents for both Fenollosa and Dow.

She noted that the origin of Fenollosa's ideas were rooted in

 

74ibid., p.76-80

75ibid., p.62

75ibid., p.51-80

"Dorothy Hook. W

.Dialeaus_en_Amerisan_Art_Educatien (Dissertation at The Pennsylvania State
university, 1987)

19

Hegelian concepts of fine art.78 For Hegel, the "beauty of art'I
does not exist in a simple imitation of nature but in an expression
of a creative spirit. Fenollosa found such a spiritual quality in
the ideal expressions of Japanese art.79

On the relationship between Fenollosa and Dow, the
centerpiece of her research, Hook explored how one influenced the

other.

If Dow had never become friends with Fenollosa in
1891, most certainly his course of action would
never have attained the same impetus and perhaps
the same form of structure in Japanese
philosophies and aesthetics of art. Dow was
receptive to Fenollosa's ideas, viewed the issues
in a generalized individual basis, and had the
previous training to bring these ideas into
contact with the student on a personal level.

Fenollosa greatly broadened Dow's outlook as
well as set him up with a formula and a direction
for implementing successful art principles. These
principles, which Dow later incorporated in his
textbook.£pmposition as “progressive synthetic
exercises,“ were based on the same ideas that
Fenollosa implemented at the Tokyo Normal School
of Art.30

Although she noted the combined contribution of Fenollosa and Dow
to American art education, Hook emphasized the tremendous

philosophical influence Fenollosa had on Dow.

 

78ibid. , p.33
79ibid.
3°ibid. , p.175

20

In Japonisme Games to America by Julia Meech and Gabriel P.
weisberg, published in 1990, Meech searched for the Japanese
influence in Dow's graphic work.81 The significance of Meech's
research is that it focuses on Dow's graphic art and shows the
influence of both Japonisme and the Arts and Crafts movement.
Japanese art contributed to “the service of social responsibility
and the search for an indigenous, organic American culture."82
Meech stressed in particular the contribution of Fenollosa and Dow
to American art and the birth of abstraction through Japanese
influence, which rejected the literal representation previously
favored in western art.83

Showing Dow's link with the principles of the Arts and Crafts
movement, Meech emphasized Dow's dissatisfaction of the automation
system of the Ukiyo-ejproduction method, as had Fenollosa, Matsuki
and Moffatt. Dow disagreed with the “impersonal division of labor“
in producing woodcuts, and instead stressed his admiration of
“personal craftsmanship.“34'This was because of Dow's stand against
“modern standardization and mechanization,“ as well as his affinity
with the concept of “handcraftsmanship,“ the Arts and Crafts
ideal.85

To ascertain the influence of certain Japanese artists on

Dow, Meech searched for Japanese sources in the catalogue of Dow's

 

81Julia Meech and Gabriel P. Weisberg, Wig; (New
York: H. N. Abrams, 1990)

82ibid., p.163
33ibid., p.165
84ibid., p.169
851nm.

21

private collection. Dow built a huge collection of Japanese prints.
Among several thousand prints, about five hundred of the best were
sold at auction in 1923. The auction catalogue shows that Dow's
various prints ranged from early
18th century works to Hiroshige's landscapes from the mid-19th
century.86

Meech examined how Dow rendered the ideal representation of
Japanese art in his own work and the particular Japanese models the
artist used. Following other scholars, Meech stated that Dow
emphasized the creation of beautiful design, the arrangement of
line, color and notan (contrasting masses of dark and light),
features that could apply to painting, prints, photography and
other applied arts.87

Japanese influence was apparent in the vertical format, flat
planes and decorative curving lines of Dow's early prints.
According to Meech, Dow claimed that his earlier woodcut series,
showing views along the Ipswich River, were inspired by Hiroshige's
series of Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido.88 Ukiyo-e artists,
such as Kuniyoshi and Tokyokuni were models for Dow's small
vertical compositions and monochrome color schemes. Moreover,
Hiroshige's series, Famous Places in the Eastern capital was a
particular model of subject and composition for Dow.89 Dow had

access to Hiroshige's prints, Meech.wrote, “by the late nineteenth

 

85ibid., p.165
87ibid., p.169
33ibid., p.168
89ibid., p.169

22

century miniature replicas of Hiroshige's popular series were in
production for the tourist trade,“ and “Dow may have collected
these, as well.“90

Dow's later prints display simplified compositions, and
abstract style.91 Exarrples are found in Dow's lithographic poster
for the 1896 exhibition, and in his woodcuts, Rain in May, dating
from 1908, and the Mbonrise series of 1910-15. Dow's poster
reflected the simplified.manner of Hiroshige with its curvilinear
lines, that showed his inspiration from the American Art Nouveau
and Arts and Crafts movement. In Dow's woodcuts, there is a less
decorative style, and these move closer to abstraction. Meech
claimed that Dow's late style would “move towards modernism.“92
This was in part due to the influence of Japanese contemporary
Ukiyo-e artists, whose styles are abstract and patterned, which can
be seen in Dow'sMoonrise.93

Although she observed that Dow's later style increasingly
displayed abstract qualities, the factors that influenced the
movement in this direction are unclear. Is this lack of clarity due
to Dow's adherence to aestheticism, his inspiration from the
abstract style of contemporary Japanese artists, or his concern
with color effects?

Nancy Green's.Arthur Wesley DOW'and His Influence, published

in an exhibition catalogue in 1990, is an another integrated work

 

9° ibid.
91ibid., p.178
92 ibid .
93ibid.

23

about Dow's prints and his artistic theory. Green focused on Dow's
concern with color effects and.pointed out that Dow's discovery of
Japanese prints changed his palette to brighter tones.94 Concerning
Dow's experiments with color, she noted that Dow tried to discover
new color effects “by printing one on top of another,“95 resulting
in the exploration of subtle color shifts, similar to Ukiyo-e
coloring.

Dow's adoption of Japanese principles can be found in his
earliest prints, that date before 1895. Green observed the
following Japanese characteristics in these prints: Japanese pillar
style, unusual perspectives, and truncated forms of objects.96

Green also noted the influence of Art NDuveau designs in
combination with Japanese principles in Dow's lithographic poster,
Modern Art, dating from 1895.97 Dow's prints from the mid-18908
showed a more “straightforward partnership of eastern and western
traditions in art“ than that found in other American artists. Dow's
style combined “American landscape“ and “an impressionistic
approach to light“ with “oriental decoration and composition.”8

In his later prints, such as Moonrise, August Moon, and Marsh
Creek, dating from about 1905, Dow concentrated on the depiction of
the changing colors of the day. Green emphasized Dow's experiments

as a colorist, his interest in depicting light effects and working

 

“Nancy Green. W (New York: Berber F.
Hohnson Museum.of Art, Cornell University, 1990), p.10

951nm.
95ibid.
97ibid. , p.11
981nm.

24

out color variations, and his concern with tonal effects.99 Dow
never wavered from Japanese influence after his first discovery in
1891,100 and his later prints emphasized flat color areas,
simplistic beauty, and design qualities.

Green found an increased Oriental flavor in the woodcut, Rain
in May, which was created after Dow's travels to Japan in 1903.
This print is similar to Hokusai and Hiroshige's depiction of
atmospheric effects like snow, rain, sunshine, mist and wind.101
Like the Japanese artists, DOW’WaS concerned with varying textures
and color effects. He worked on several variations of this print
before rendering the slashes of rain.102 Green described this print
as his best known work for “the soft beauty of the landscape and
the precise handling of the rain itself.“103

Finally Green examined Dow's impact on his students. Georgia
O'Keeffe, one of the most famous, appreciated her teacher's
theories for their style of emotional rather than realistic detail
and the rendering of “personal expression and abstraction.“104 As
Dow stated, “a study of Japanese art derived from the drawn line,
and the elusive suggested tones ...[gives]... the same kind of

experience that music gives.“105

 

99ibid.
10011315., p. 14
101ibid., p.15
1°2ibid.
1°3ibid.
1°4ibid. , p.16
1°5ibid.

25

Like Moffatt and Meech, Green noted that Dow's work.became
increasingly abstract during his later years. Even though Green
does not directly mention the reason for this increasing
abstraction, one may assume that Dow's inclination towards
abstraction was caused by his intention to create visual art
simdlar to music.

This review of the literature about Dow highlights several
issues. First, there is the influence of Fenollosa's love of
Japanese art and its idealism, rooted in the writings of Plato and
Hegel, on Dow's theories and his works. Second, Dow held the
concept that art should not be a mere imitation of nature, but an
expression of an idea. Fenollosa found this notion in Japanese art;
he thought that Japanese art conveyed strong spirituality because
of its abstract and simplified forms. This is one reason why Dow
was attracted to Japanese art.106 Dow also found Japanese art
similar in its tenets with aestheticism and the Arts and Crafts
movement, which were popular at the turn of the century.1”7

The influence of Ukiyo-e prints, especially those of Hokusai
and Hiroshige, on Dow's prints has been noted by many authors.
According to Meech, Dow was greatly influenced by the Ukiyo-e
artists, Kuniyoshi, Tokyokuni and Hiroshige.108 In particular,
Hiroshige's series of the Fifty-three Stations the Tbkaido and the

Famous Places in the Eastern capital had a considerable impact in

 

1°5Chisolm, 1963; Lancaster, 1969; Moffatt, 1977; Hook, 1987; Meech and
weisberg, 1990; Green, 1990.

1°7Mof£att, 1977; Meech and Weisberg, 1990; Green, 1990.

”Breach and Weisberg, 1990, p.169

26

subject and composition on Dow's woodcuts.1°9 Building on this
research, I would like to propose further artistic models by
comparing certain Ukiyo-e works with those of Dow.

Finally Dow's style changed from his earlier to his later
works. Prints made before 1895 show crowded images, vivid color,
and Japanese compositional devices. In the later prints, Dow's work
became more abstract and simplified, exploring varying colors and
tones.110 However, the particular reasons for his move toward
abstract styles has not yet been discussed. Possible reasons may be
suggested by an examination of Fenollosa's and Dow's writings and

publications to determine why Dow was attracted to Japanese art.

 

1°9ibid.
11(Moffatt, 1977; Meech and Weisberg, 1990; Green, 1990.

Chapter 2. Dow's Prints And Ukiyo-e

Fenollosa described Dow's woodcuts as being the result of “an
independent use of oriental principles in a free application to the
rendering of characteristic beauties in New England scenery.“r”-By
incorporating the concepts, forms and techniques of Japanese art,
Dow developed a new aesthetic in his pictorial woodcut prints. This
is exactly what Fenollosa had been expecting from the fusion of
Eastern and western art. Julia Meech identified the Japanese
artists such as Kuniyoshi, Toyokuni and Hiroshige as possible
sources for Dow. She referred to Hiroshige's Fifty-three Stations
of the Tokaido and Famous Places in the Eastern capital as models
for subject and composition.112 In order to confirm that Hiroshige's
works, particularly his series the Fifty-three Stations of the
Tokaido, and the One Enndred Famous Views of Ede are directly
related to Dow's prints, I will discuss the impact of Japanese art,
especially those of Hiroshige, on the development of Dow's

individual style.

 

111Ernest Fenollosa. Seesial.£xhibition_ef_§eler_£rintsr_nesignedi

.Enaraxsd_and_nrinted_bx_Arthur_Eeslex_Dou (Boston: Moseum.of Fine Arts.
1895)! p03

112Meech and Weisberg. 1990. P-159

27

28

E i H' 1.

On the evening of February 24, 1891, Dow came upon Japanese
art, illustrations of Hokusai's prints, at the Boston Public
Library.113 This was the first time Dow felt a strong inspiration
from Japanese art, and there after he turned away from the academic
style in order to create one with greater self—expression.
Fenollosa described Dow's woodcuts as the “rendering of
characteristics beauties“ of New England landscapes; creating a
beautiful landscape with “the air of poetry“114 was always Dow's
concern. Dow loved natural scenes, especially the landscapes of New
England where he was born, and tried to capture their natural
beauty throughout his life.115 What Dow wanted to express in his
picture was his poetic impression of a natural scene, such as a
sunset, a sunrise, a moonrise, or a rainy day.

Dow's enthusiasm for poetic nature paralleled the Japanese
appreciation of natural scenery. Japanese sentimental scenary for
Nature was such that Japanese painters had created poetic and
sentimental landscapes since the 10th century}:16 Hiroshige, a
famous Ukiyo-e master, was one artist who tried in his pictures to
express an empathy with nature, which he saw as the subjective
reflection of human feelings such as love, joy and sorrow.117 He

attempted to convey these human emotions through atmospheric

 

113Moffatt, 1977, p.48

11‘Johnson, 1934, p.27

llsibid.

116Muneshige Narazaki, S;pdy_in_na§nzg (California: Kodansha, 1970), p.15
117ibid., p.20

29

landscape pictures. Fenollosa admired Hiroshige's extraordinary
rendering of atmospheric effects in his prints. He wrote “In
special atmospheric effects, such as moonlight, snow, mist, and
rain, he [Hiroshige] achieved a variety of effects such as neither
Greek nor modern European art had ever known.“118

In a comparison of Hokusai's work with that of Hiroshige, one
can recognize which artist was closer to Dow's notion of artistic
creativity. Muneshige Narazaki described the difference between

them:

Hokusai's work is subjective only in the sense
that everything he depicts is infused.with his own
great vitality. ...Hiroshige is romantic,
evocative, and poetic. His prints summon up a mood
that is deeply imbued with the artist's own
sensitive, compassionate personality. ...Hokusai's
humanity is more robust and dynamic, whereas
Hiroshige is more resigned and melancholy}:19

Hiroshige's picture are tranquil, peaceful and sentimental. Through
simplified pictorial compositions, Hiroshige conveyed a poetic
feeling of nature. According to Fenollosa, Hiroshige could create
“something here in feeling which even Hokusai cannot reach.“120 It

is Hiroshige, rather than Hokusai, who could create the poetic and

 

113Ernest F. Fenollosa, Epochs of Chinese & Japanese Art (New York:

Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1921), vol. II, p.204
119Narazaki, 1970, p.27

12°Ernsst F'- anolloss. W

 

(New York: w. H. Ketcham, 1896), p.113

30

atmospheric landscapes fitting Dow's own notion of artistic
creativity. Hiroshige emphasized his impression of nature and was
more concerned with expressing his inner emotions and sensibilities
in his work.

It is well known that Dow was first fascinated by Hokusai's
book illustrations.121 However, it is probable that Dow's woodcuts
were more influenced by Hiroshige than by any other Japanese
artist, although Dow's artistic theory was inspired by not only
Ukiyo-e but also by traditional Japanese ink painting technique
represented by Sesshu and the Kano school and the decorative style

represented by the Rimpa and the Shijo school.3122

I , E . | 2 J] l'
A catalogue of Dow's private collection, published after his
death in 1923,123 is one source that reveals his knowledge of
Japanese art. Dow's diverse collection shows his affection for
Japanese art; he assembled woodcut prints, lacquers, porttery and
illustrated books.124 These include many distinctive Japanese styles

such as Sesshu's ink paintings, works from the Kano and the Tosa

 

121Johnson, 1934; Moffatt, 1977; Hook, 1987; Meech and Weisberg, 1990; and
Green, 1990

122Moffatt, 1977, p.51-3

123Meech and Weisberg, 1990, p.165

’34The American Art Galleries. The_ImDertant_2rirate_£ellectien_ef_the

Lats_2refesser.Arthur_Heslex_Deu (New York: The American Art Association.
1923)

31

schools, paintings and lacquers by Korin, pottery by kensan, and
large number of Ukiyo-e prints.125

Among Ukiyo—e artists, Hokusai and Hiroshige are notable; the
Hiroshige collection, especially, is very comprehensive. Dow
collected Hiroshge's series such as the Fifty-three Stations of
Tbkaidb, Sixtyenine Stations of the Kisokaido, Famous Places of the
Eastern capital, One HUndred Famous Views of £60, and Thirty-six
Views of Mount FUji. This shows Dow's special interest in

Hiroshige's prints, which Dow used as models for his own.

DQELS_EaIlY_EQQdQuLS

Dow's use of Japanese ink painting techniques can be seen
clearly in his drawing. For Dow line was an important factor in
producing a harmonious spacing with “a beautiful movement of
rhythm“26 Dow tried to achieve a rhythmic arrangement of spacing
through Japanese lines.””.than comes directly from the Japanese,
meaning “dark, light.“ The term “refers to the quantity of light
reflected, or the massing of tones of different values."128 Mfoatt
pointed out the influence of Sesshu's ink painting such as the

blurred edges, spontaneous lines and spiritual intensity in Dow's

 

1251.13.16.

126Arthur wesley Dow, “Talks on Appreciation of Art,“ Ihe_nglinea§pz,
January 1915, No. I

127Hook, 1987, p.145. She quotes Dow's sentence: “...there is always in
the Oriental a hidden rhythm or something more than the visible line.“
from “Modernism in Art“ WM 8, 1917, p.116
128Arthur wesley Dow, Cpmpgsigipn (New York: Doubleday, Page & Company,
1916), p.7

32

sketchbooks and ink drawings made during 1890.129 The ink drawing
reproduced here as Figure 1 shows Dow's enthusiasm for Japanese ink
painting techniques such as haboku, or the splashed-ink technique,
rhythmic line qualities akin to calligraphy, and the contrast of
masses in different tones.

Besides practicing with black-and-white pictures, Dow
experimented with color effects in his woodcuts after 1891.130 Like
the Japanese representation of simple beauty, Dow successfully
expressed the simple and harmonious beauty of the New England
landscape.

Among his earliest color prints, Dow created a series of ten
works, called Along Ipswich River, dating from 1893 to 1895, which
show view of the river. Some Japanese characteristics can be seen
in these prints. The series reveals how Hiroshige's Fifty-three
Stations of the Tokaido inspired Dow.131 A.series of prints of
landscapes is a very Japanese idea, both Hiroshige and Hokusai
created series prints, such as the Mt. Fuji series, the famous view
series, and the river scene series.

Dow's compositional devices, such as truncated forms,
asymmetry, and extremely high or low viewpoints, are also derived
from Japanese sources}:32 These characteristics, often used by
French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, can be observed

particularly in the pictures of Hokusai and Hiroshige. Such

 

129Moffatt, 1977, p.51

13°Meech and Weisberg, 1990, p.168

131ibid., p.168

132Moffatt, 1977; Meech, 1990; and Green, 1990

33

compositional devices were exaggerated by Hiroshige, as seen in his
series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.133

Dow's early prints also show the influence of Hiroshige. A
comparison between these artists' prints reveals Dow's strong
interest in compositional devices, inspired by those of Hiroshige.
I believe Dow got the idea of making some of his own compositions
directly from Hiroshige's Ukiyo-e, especially the Fifty-three
Stations of the Tokaido and one HUndred Famous Views of Eda.

Dow's Harbor SCene (Fig. 2), dating form 1895, displays the
same compositional form as Hiroshige's Benkei.Moat from Soto-
Sakurada to ijimachi (Fig. 3) from the series One HUndred Famous
View of Eda. A truncated triangle mast of a yacht on a broad and
gently curving river in Harbor Scene echoes Hiroshige's triangular
banks and zigzag moat. This is an example of Dow's adaptation of
Hiroshige's zigzag composition. A small tower in the distance in
the Harbor SCene is simdlar to the Japanese temple tower placed in
the background of the Hiroshige's print.

Along Ipswich River (Fig. 4), dating form.1890, also shows a
Japaneseque composition, seen in the close-up and truncated forms
of the irises. Hiroshige's Hbrikiri: The Iris Gardens (Fig. 5) from
one HUndred Views of.Edo can be considered as a model for Dow's
print. This subject is also seen in Vincent van Gogh's famous
painting, Irises (Fig. 6) which shows the close—up objects and the
cropping of the scene. Dow already knew the works of artists who

were inspired by Ukiyo-e prints from his stay in France, therefore,

 

133Ju1ian Bicknell, W ( San Francisco: Pomergrante
Artbooks, 1994); P.103

34

he was influenced by the ideas and techniques of these European
artists as well.

An untitled.print (Fig. 7), dating form 1895, is a good
example of Dow's adoption of Japanese asymmetrical composition. The
cluster of houses on the left bank contrasts with the spatial area
of the river on the right and draws the viewer's eye from left to
right. The depiction of a large truncated house next to smaller
houses along the diagonal line of the river bank gives a sense of
deep distance. It shows exactly Hiroshige's experiments with
western perspective as seen in his Narumi:.Arimatsu Shibori (Fig.
8) from the Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido. Dow re-imported
Hiroshige's interpretation of western perspective as rendered in
this print . 134

The bridge is a popular subject among western artists who
were inspired by Japanese art.135 Dow also chose the bridge for the
subject of his vertical composition, Ipswich Bridge (Fig. 9),
dating from about 1895. In this print, Dow took a low viewpoint to
depict a scene that emphasizes the reflection of structures in the
water. Taking an extremely high or low view point to picture a
scene is a characteristic of Hiroshige's. Hiroshige's bridge
picture, Ryogoku Bridge (Fig. 10), is a clear example of the low
viewpoint and asymmetrical composition. James MCNeil Whistler's
painting, Old Battersea Bridge:.Nbcturne in Blue and Gold (Fig.

11), also inspired by Hiroshige's print, shows the poetic

 

134Hiroshige's experiments with Western style can be considered one of
reasons for Dow's attraction for Hiroshige's prints.

13F’Siegried Wichmann, W (New York: Harmony Books, 1981), p.139

35

expression as well as the compositional devices, such as the low
viewpoint and the cropping of scene. Since Dow admired Whistler
very much,r“ Whistler's picture can also be considered as an
important sources for Dow's print.

One of Dow's finest color lithographs is Modern.Art (Fig.

12), dating form 1895 and created for a poster to advertise the
journal of the same name.¥" This is a typical example of
Hiroshige's zigzag compositional style, as seen in Basho's
Hermitage and camellia Hill on the Kanda.Aqueduct at seiguchi (Fig.
13) from the one HUndred Famous Views of Ede. As Moffatt and Green
have noted, the poster shows an abstract and.Art Nouveau quality;1338
the flowing lines of the flower motif in the frame are obviously
influenced by Art Nouveau, but the unnatural curving of Hiroshige's
tree branches in Basho's Hermitage and Camellia Hill mdght be
considered another source of inspiration. Hiroshige's other print,
Chiyodagaike Pond (Fig. 14). shows the reflection of the trees in
the water, and can also be considered an inspiration for Dow's
Mbdern.Art.

The earlier prints discussed above emphasize simple forms,
decorative qualities and flat planes. Without modeling or three-
dimensional perspective, these prints abandoned the style of
naturalistic illusionism in favor of simple beauty, and can be seen

to show the influence of Ukiyo-e on Dow's woodcuts.

 

135Johnson, 1934, p.54
137Moffatt, 1977, p.76
13%fratt, 1977, p.76; Green, 1990, p.11

36

For example, Bent of a River (Fig. 15), dating from 1895.
parallels Hiroshige's Chiryu: Herse Fair in Early summer (Fig. 16)
from the Fiftyethree Stations of the Tokaido. It is likely that Dow
rendered Hiroshige's horizontal composition as a vertical
composition. The decorative featured tree in an open field in
Hiroshige's picture is moved off-center in the foreground in Dow's
print. By adopting Hiroshige's zigzag composition Dow shows
increasingly decorative qualities through the use of the flat
plane, an unnaturally curved bend, and expressive coloring.

The color composition in Dow's earlier prints is bright;
Moffatt described it as “a brocade of vivid coloring.“39 The
.Nishiki-e, or brocade print, is famous for its vivid color schemes.
The color in Ukiyo-e prints was not used for making objects appear
true to nature but was applied to make the picture vividly
appealing to spectators. Hiroshige's series One HHndred.Famous
Views of Eda is famous for its “bright coloring and a distinctive
composition.“”0 The series can be considered one of Dow's sources
in designing his color schemes as well as his composition. The
Harbor SCene (Fig. 2) and the riverside scene in the untitled print
(Fig. 7) show solid and vivid coloring with subtle change of dark

to light like those found in western watercolor paintings.

 

139M0ffatt, 1977, p.66
14°Henry D. Smith II and Amy G. Poster (The Brooklyn Museum), Hiroshige;

911W (New York: George Braziller Inc.. 1986).
p.12

37

DQEL§_LaLeI_EOQanLS

After 1895 Dow's prints show a decreasing concern for
Japanese compositional devices; in contrast, these prints reveal an
increased interest in simple and harmonious spacing, texture and
color schemes composed of hue, value and intensity. The exploration
of these elements display a more simplified and abstract structure
than found in his earlier prints. According to Dow, color varies
not only in hue, but in value from light to dark, and intensity
from bright to gray (dull).”“-By adopting the contrast of dark and
light in Far Eastern ink painting, Dow explored the effect of
various tones of different values in his color prints, which makes
the coloring more evocative. Following his interest in color, Dow
recomposed the same series of prints several times in different
color schemes, just as Hiroshige experimented with different color
effects in the same picture. Hiroshige also adopted the contrast of
masses in dark and light tones used in ink painting techniques to
his color prints in order to depict atmospheric conditions.
Hiroshige applied bright colors such as red and blue with subtle
gradations and subdued hues to explore the full range of bright
pigmentation.1‘42 His balanced and harmonious color arrangements in
various values are applied effectively in depicting picturesque
skies and rivers in misty, windy, snowy, sunset, sunrise, and
moonrise scenes.

The calm House and The Yellow'House, both dating from.1910,

show Dow's experiments with color schemes. They are the same

 

141Dow, 1916, p.100
142$mith n, 1986, p.12

38

composition as The Blue Heuse but in different color schemes. Dow
created different color versions of The calm Heuse; The Calm House
in winter (Fig. 17), at night (Fig. 18), and a spring scene, The
Yellow'HOuse. Like Impressionists, Dow experimented with depicting
different light conditions by coloring and tones, such as white
snow scene with a dark house, and a dark night scene with a darker
house. As Impressionists learned how to depict light conditions
from the Japanese print artists, it is probable that Dow was also
inspired by Hiroshige's print, a snow scene at night in Kanbara.
(Fig. 19)

Dow's exploration of color to depict atmospheric conditions
such as sunset, moonlight, rainy and night scenes can be seen in
the following prints: Bend of a River (Fig. 20), Fiowering Orchard
(Fig. 21). EVening Glow, Willows in Bloom, The Desert (Fig. 22) (in
two color variations), August Moon (Fig. 23), Moonrise (Fig. 24).
Marsh creek (Fig. 25) and Rain in May (Fig. 26).

Dow had applied vivid color in his earlier works. However,
his later prints show an increasing development of coloration with
the value effects. Color became limited but was harmoniously
arranged with values and intensity; the harmonious relation of
softer and warmer hues with various tones and values explored a
range of coloring.

The print, Bend of River (Fig. 20), depicts a sunset scene.
Although a limited.yellowish color, reflecting sunlight, is applied
over the picture surface, the range of color is expanded. Because
of varied values, the color of each mass is slightly different and

combines to depict a gentle and impressive sunlight.

39

The tree prints, Flowering Orchard (Fig. 21), Evening Glow
and Willow'in Bloom, also shOW'Dow‘s exploration of color. He
depicts different times of the day by applying different
coloration. Dow's same experiments with color for depicting light
conditions can be seen in his three prints, August Mbon (Fig. 23).
Moonrise (Fig. 24) and Marsh creek (Fig. 25). He experimented with
different color schemes to depict hOW'moonlight effects dark night.
Dow depicts in clear and bright full moon night in.Mbonrise, a
darker moon night in Marsh Creek, and a clear full moon night in
August.Mbon. Contrasts dark and light is a valuable vehicle for
depicting night scenes. Dow portrayed these night scenes in moon
light by a limited color palette with varied values of a subtle
transition from dark to light.

Dow's later works show fewer compositional devices and
simpler structures. These prints portray similar panoramic views of
landscapes including flat marshes, a river, a creek, and a pond
depicted from a high viewpoint. Dow did not render extremely
enlarged and truncated forms in the foreground or zigzag
compositions, elements often observed in his earlier prints. Dow's
later structures became more restrained. However, Dow did not
abandon Japanese composition. One may find similarities between
Dow's later prints and Hiroshige's Benten Shrine; Inokashira Pond
(Fig. 27) showing a typical “bird's eye view“ perspective. Dow's
sense of distance, the relationship between foreground and
background, became more and.more ambiguous and abstract. At the

same time, the style of Dow's later prints became more abstract.

40

Because Dow omitted the details of things, the forms of his prints
became more simplified and essential.

An outstanding print, Rain in May (Fig. 26), dating from
about 1908, show Dow's increasing abstract structure and
development of gradation in the color print. The composition shows
a Japanese “bird's-eye view“ perspective, high horizon and an
ambiguous treatment of distance. However, there are fewer
compositional devices than in Dow's earlier prints. Here the style
is still flat, but has a simplified and less decorative quality,
even simpler than that found in Ukiyo-e. With a lack of detail,
calligraphic flowing lines divide the picture space into simplified
masses. These masses or shapes are arranged on the same picture
plane. Hence objects such as trees, hills, streams, marsh and sky
are drawn very simple. The more structure is simplified, the more
the abstract quality of the print increases.

This print is the finest example of arrangement of tones and
colors. In this print the tonal harmony of subtle values shows
Dow's adaptation of notan (szQfi‘) technique of Zen ink painting.
Harry Mayne's House (Fig. 28) from the Camposition shows Dow's
experiment with notan technique to western black and white drawing;
the picture shows black color in five values, such as white, light
gray, middle gray, dark gray and black. Dow applied more than five
values of colors for the Rain in May. The color is very limited,
only green, blue and.yellow are applied. However, the arrangement
of value from light to dark makes color effects deep and.profound,
The arrangement of tones and colors in this print is used for not

only depicting a mysterious mood but also giving the sense of

41

distance often found in Japanese prints like Hiroshige's Benten
Shrine (Fig. 27) . Foreground objects are drawn darkly to make them
appear with a gradual value transition form dark to light to reach
an almost colorless sky. The harmonious tone-relations with limited
colors effectively expresses the mysterious beauty of a rainy
landscape in May.

Through a simplified structure and the harmonic relation
between tone and color, Dow developed a mysterious poetic beauty
conveying “musical harmony,“1‘-'3 similar to that found in Hiroshige's
works. Hiroshige's compositions, especially as represented in the
One HUndred Famous Views of Edo and the Fifty-three Stations of the
Tbkaido, were much more influential in Dow's earlier prints than in
his later prints. Dow, in his earlier work, adopted Hiroshige's
compositional styles including the use of zigzag, diagonal,
asymmetrical and truncated elements. However, in his later work,
Dow was more concerned with depicting atmospheric conditions by
exploring the harmonious unity of simple and rhythmic spacing,
coloration and tone-relation. Dow's exploration of gradation
technique from Zen ink painting made his color prints more quiet
and subdued, in contrast to the brocade quality of his earlier
prints. At the same time, his structure and style became simpler
and more abstract. Dow's increasingly abstract style and sensuous
color in his later prints powerfully expresses an “air of poetry
and mystery. “1“ The feeling which comes from his later prints,

especially Rain in May and the moonlight series, is very close to

 

143ibid., p.54
1“Johnson, 1934, p.27

42

that included by Hiroshige's sensitivities poetic scenes depicting
rain, snow, wind, sunset and moonlight.

In his early period, Dow was very influenced by Hiroshige in
develop his composition; however, Dow later became increasingly
interested in conveying poetic atmosphere. Dow's structure became
simpler, but his interest in exploring color and gradation relation
increased. Dow's established style is close to abstraction and is
simpler than Hiroshige's Ukiyo-e, and expresses Dow's inner

emotions. This is the style of Dow's personal expression.

Chapter 3. Idealism and Dow's Artistic Style

Dow's simple and abstract woodcut style after the mid-1890s
directly conveys the sensuous beauty of the New England landscape.
As Clay Lancaster points out, the contribution of Dow's work
liberated American art from strict realism; at the same time, it
helped to give birth to abstraction, which led to American
Modernism.145 In other words, the ideal representation of Japanese
art, through Fenollosa and Dow's perspectives, indirectly
contributed to the birth of American Modernism, As some scholars
and artists in the second half of the 19th century have pointed
out, Japanese paintings of Zen priests, the Kano and Rimpa schools
are not mere illusionistic representations of nature but the
expressions of the artists' inner emotions and spirits.
Particularly, the style of Zen paintings is simple, abstract and
essential rather than realistic. Dow was an artist who learned from
this more abstract manner of Japanese representation and used it to
establish his own style. Dow's woodcuts were greatly influenced by
the Ukiyo-e print, however, his mature style after the mid-18908
shows a quality more abstract even than Ukiyo-e. In order to
understand the reasons for Dow's move towards abstraction, I would

like to explore, first, why western artists who preceded Dow looked

 

1“Lancaster, 1969, p.287

43

44

to Japanese art. Second, I will present the way Japanese
representation of beauty contributes to Dow's move to abstraction
through the examination of Dow's, as well as Fenollosa's, writings

about modern art.

ThLErehlemLinJesternArt

When Japan opened its doors to the world, European realist
painting had reached its peak and was seeking new directions.
European applied arts were seen to suffer from deteriorating
artistic quality. Because of industrial mass-production, the
applied arts in Europe were losing both their beauty and
spirituality.146

The artists who opposed the science and technology of western
society did so for what they saw as a loss of spirituality.
Industrialization found its way into works of art and consequently
sacrificed beauty for commercialism. The art critic James Jackson
Jarves was concerned that European artists depended too much on
scientific techniques in order to paint objects that looked real

through the rendering of perfect modeling and tint. He wrote:

European art of our time has a marked tendency

towards the scientific extreme, contenting itself
over-much with the dumb show of material objects,
and finding its supreme satisfaction in their

outward likeness. Japanese art tips the aesthetic
scale towards the other extreme, paying less heed
to the grammar of art, and bestowing its greatest

 

145Yamada, 1980, p.15

45

attention on the vivid rendering of the specific
motive in its highest scale of idealization.147

Jarves pointed out that it was a fallacy in modern theory that
“genuine art consists of a blind adherence to nature. “143 Art does
not imitate nature, but the artist can learn and study the methods,
laws and principles, derived from.nature, and subsequently could
invent, imagine, and create art works. Artists, according to
Jarves, should be concerned with the representation of “specific
motive in its highest scale of idealization.“149

Like Jarves, Fenollosa thought that contemporary western art
was too concerned with the depiction of accurate form based on
scientific techniques. In the Report of the Japanese Fine Arts
Commission, which went to Europe in 1886-7 to research art
institutions, Fenollosa, who was one of the commission members,
stated that between the 12th and late 15th centuries, the unity of
beauty in Idea (subject) and the form of western art, that was not
based on the classical style, had rapidly developed. However, he
continued, after the 16th century, artists were too eager to study
scientific techniques, such as anatomy and Chiaroscuro, in order to
create art works that were true to nature. Artists lost an interest

in spiritual insights and the knowledge of how to reveal the beauty

 

147James Jackson Jarves, W (Vermont: Charles
E. Tuttle, 1984 [first published in 1876]). p.44-45

14811818. , p.165
149ibid. , p.45

46

of a subject.150 Fenollosa thought that western art was more
scientific than its more spiritual Eastern counterpart; hence he
concluded that western art was inferior to Eastern art.1551 He
asserted that classical Japanese art was superior to that of the
west because it expressed the idea at the heart of the painting.152
Okakura Kakuzo, a pupil of Fenollosa, agreed with Jarves and
Fenollosa about the loss of spirituality in Western art. Okakura
criticized western industrialization for destroying artistic
inspiration. He thought that industrialism.sacrificed art because
the purpose of industrial art was not to attain aesthetic quality,
but to make cheap mass-produced objects.153 Artists were forced to
be art-making machines; they were asked to produce as many pieces
as they could.154 According to Okakura, Western artists became more
concerned with “the hand [rather] than the soul, the technique
[rather] than the man.“155 Therefore, Okakura thought, traditional
Japanese art could express a higher spiritual awakening than
western art. Okakura's ideas about Japanese art versus western art
were based on concepts of idealism versus materialism, Okakura's

anti-materialism was expressed by his words: “we boast that we have

 

15°Akiko Mutakata. Ihe_Ernest_Er_Esnellesa_Daesrs (Japan: Museum Shuppan.
1982), Japanese Edition vol. II, p.49-66

151Chieo1m, 1963, p.50

1521bid., p.60

153Okakura Tenshin, Okakuzg_1en§hin_2en§yu (Japan: Heibonsha, 1979), p.84
154ibid.

1550kakura Kaokuzo, Egpk_p£_2ea (Tokyo: Kenkkyusha, 1952), p.70

47

conquered Matter and forget that it is Matter that has enslaved
113. e156

For Okakura, art existed to express the thoughts of each
epoch as a mirror of people's minds; therefore, art should flourish

when the Idea, or spirit, was dominant over Matter. He wrote:

Nothing is more hallowing than the union of
kindred spirits in art. At the moment of meeting,
the art lover transcends himself. At once he is
and is not. He catches a glimpse of Infinity,
...Freed from the fetters of matter, his spirit
moves in the rhythm of things. It is thus that art
becomes akin to religion and ennobles mankind. It
is this which makes a masterpiece something
sacred.”7

Jarves, Fenollosa and Okakura also shared the belief that
contemporary western art was losing its spirituality in
scientifically accurate representations of the subject. This lack
of spirituality in art resulted from the progress in western
science and technology.

Materialism removed not only spirituality but was also the
cause of a decline in aesthetic quality in art. Jarves thought that
a large number of low-quality works were produced in Europe and
America with the development of western industry and the growth of

commercialism, Jarves wrote:

But the mischievous confounding of the fundamental
purpose and limitations of the industrial, with

 

15611618. , p.80
157ibid. , p.72

48

the fine arts, is but too common in Europe and
almost universal in America. we produce in
consequence a vast number of things incongruous in
constructive principles, vulgar in ornamentation,
garish in colors, and at the same time of little
poetical value; whilst those intended particularly
to gratify taste are tortured out of their
legitimate forms by a futile desire to force them
to subserve some domestic need.158

As materialism progressed, thought Jarves, western houses were
decorated with inappropriate objects neither useful nor beautiful.
The western world was filled with “a pitiable poverty of aesthetic
invention“ because Westerners, both Americans and European,
confounded “the fundamental purposes and the limitations of
industrial, with fine arts.“159

The principles of the Arts and Crafts movement emphasized
similar points. These artists were convinced that industrialization
caused the deterioration of artistic quality by sacrificing
aesthetic and spiritual values.160 The critic, John Ruskin, thought
that “all cast and.machine work was bad“ because machinery deprived
humanity of craftsmanship and made artists “anonymous laborers“.161
Hence, he suggested a return to handwork to regain aesthetics and

spiritual quality.“52 Another aim of the Arts and Crafts movement

 

159Jarves, 1984, p.141-2

15911616.

16oWendy Kaplan. Wanna
W (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1987), p.52
151ibid., p.54

152ibid.

49

was to unify art and labor, designer and craftsman.163 William
Morris took this idea one step further and advocated the unity of
all the arts.164

Echoing the concepts of the Arts and Crafts movement,
Fenollosa was critical of contemporary western art for losing a
sense of beauty and.meglecting spiritual matters.165 He thought
that the visual expression of the conceptual idea and spirit which
had existed before the high—Renaissance were neglected by a great
dependence on scientific techniques. Fenollosa, like other
Japonists, found a beauty of spiritual representation in Japanese
academic paintings . 155

Americans in the late 19th century, especially the educated
and affluent. had been haunted by a “feeling of over
civilization,“167 based on dissatisfaction with modern culture;
dissatisfaction with science, rationality, and materialism, People
began to long for a freshening of the cultural atmosphere and, at
the same time, they looked for the experience of real life,
something simple and naturalistic. Therefore, these early Japonists
turned to Japanese culture to find a way to solve the artistic
problems of modern society. They found real human life and real art

in the aesthetic and spiritual representation of Japanese art in

 

153ibid.

164ibid., p.55

15SSeiichi Yamaguchi, Eggpllgsa, (Japan: Sanseido, 1982) vo1. 2, p. 60
155ibid., p.63

157Jackaon T. J. Lears. N9_21ace_ef_§rase (New York: Pantheon Books.
1981). p.4

50

contrast to the strict realism of western art whose technique
greatly depended on science.168

Jarves was one of the first scholars to suggest the study of
Japanese art as a source on which to draw in order to overcome the
limitations of realism in western art. Chisolm.points out that
Jarves hoped to “enlarge our Anglo-Saxon art-horizon“ by
“assimilated examples ...drawn from all sources“ and free from
“invidious nationalism.“169 Jarves emphasized accepting “new ideals
and rules,“ and tried to elaborate on these different principles
and manners while putting aside “familiar ideals and ordinary
rules.“170 Jarves suggested using Japanese art, whose
representation of both beauty and spirituality, he thought, was
lacking in western art at the turn of the century, as a prime
source for constructing the principles of American art.

Fenollosa developed Jarves's notion of universalism to create
a fusion of Eastern and.western artistic theory.171 Fenollosa
believed that Eastern spiritualism could invigorate the decline in
western art. He thought that American artists could integrate
Japanese spirituality and.western naturalism and that Japanese
artistic styles could contribute to creating a new synthetic style

of American art . 172

 

1681bid., p.5
169cniso1m, 1963, p.61
17°ibid., p.62
171ibid., p.54
172ibid.

51

tTriern.£uuiiand_£iru:ractiru1

As an artist, Dow seemed to embody Fenollosa's views of the
fusion of Japanese methods of representation and‘western
expression. Dow's fundamental artistic theories were based on
Fenollosa's idealism, which held that art should not be a mere
imitation of nature but a harmonious representation of the Idea.“3
Fenollosa understood Japanese academic painting as a representation
of conceptual beauty and suggested that Western artists learn the
traditional three elements of line, notan (light-and—dark) and
color.“” Dow developed this concept and defined these elements in
relation to the design of picture composition. Dow's woodcuts
neglect realism in favor of simplified and abstract forms, which
can be observed increasingly in his later prints.

In Dow's later woodcuts, created after the mid-1890s, the
structure became simplified, at the same time, the line qualities
and the harmonic relations of tone and color were developed. What
factors prompted Dow to increase these abstract qualities? As
Johnson noted in describing the music-like quality in Dow's art
works,175 Dow was increasingly concerned in his later prints with
designing his work as visual music. It was Japanese art,
particularly the rhythmic line and harmonious tone relationships of
Japanese brush drawings, which inspired Dow to create a picture as
visual music. Green cites Dow's statements about Japanese art and

music: “A study of Japanese art derived from the drawn line, and

 

173Hook, 1987, p.33
174Chielom, 1963, p.81
175Jonneon, 1934, p.108

52

the elusive suggested tones...[gives]...the same kind of experience
that music gives."176

Dow explained that visual music would be a perceptual image_
created by “Synthetic“77 forms through the harmonious arrangement
of rhythmic lines, masses, tones and colors. For example, Dow's
woodcut, Rain in May (Fig. 26), was created by a harmonious
combination of each element. The picture does not show a realistic
natural scene but represents the artist's subjective image. The
style is closer to abstraction; however, it is still
representational. Dow thought that visual art should involve two
things: “the representative element of the subjects,“ and “the
formal element, or laws of beautiful line, notan, and colour.“178
The former, representation of subjects, is similar to poetry and
the latter, foam, is similar to music. Hence, Dow considered “form!
as a vehicle for conveying a “mysterious beauty,“ like the “sound
of music“179 The Rain in May reveals Dow's concepts; the flat and
abstract form.conveys a natural beauty like the sound of music
through the rhythmic pattern of lines, masses and tonal color. In
order to increase this musical quality Dow used staccato lines to
depict rain. Thus viewers can powerfully perceive the artist's

poetic impression of nature.

 

175Dow's lecture syllabus on Japanese art given at Yale University, New

Haven, CT, February 17, 1917, quoted by Green, 1990, p.16,
177Dow, 1913, p.50

178Johnson, 1934, p.107
179ibid.

53

Fenollosa discussed the link between visual art and.music in
his writing,.Mbdern Arts andLiterature.180 Defining modern art as
being free from the “classical formula and shackles,“181 Fenollosa
regarded literature as “the music of verbal feeling,“182 and
painting as “the music of color and line.“183 Modern painting,
according to Fenollosa, was formed by “new combinations of line,
mass and color“ to convey harmonies, like singing birds, sweeping
storms and symphonies of orchestras.184 Fenollosa called painting a
“pictorial idea“185 because painting represents a conceptual image
of nature through the simple pictorial form of color and line. The
modern form, according to Fenollosa, was the “transition from the
sculptural and intellectual, to the musical and the formal.“186
Fenollosa considered modern painting to be harmony, melody and
music created by the unity of line, mass and color. With respect to
Chinese and Japanese painting, he found their symbolic and musical
qualities as the motivating force of his modern concept.187

Dow's agreement with Fenollosa's concepts is revealed in his
statement: “He [Fenollosa] vigorously advocated a radically

different idea, based as in music, upon synthetic principles. He

 

1801"‘enollosa's paper, “Modern Arts and Literature, “ (no date available),
from Murakata, 1987, vol. 3, p. 111-4

181ibid., p.111

182ibid., p.112

133ibid.

184ibid.

1851bid.

135ibid.

187ibid.

54

believed music to be, in a sense, the key to the other fine arts,
since its essence is pure beauty; that space art may be called
“visual music“, and.may be studied and criticized from this point
of view.“188 Dow fostered the idea that art reflects the link he
saw, between visual arts and music.189

In his 1915 article, Talks on Appreciation of Art, Dow
discussed the importance of space, rhythm, notan and color as key
elements in picture design akin to visual music. According to Dow,
good design could attract spectators like good music.190 To create
good design, artists should look for “the best spacing, the most
rhythm, the most mysterious notan and color.“191 Good design would
be created by rejecting all useless detail. Dow noted that “Truth
to nature has nothing whatever to do with the art of this
picture. “192

In order to convey sensuous and perceptual qualities through
fonm, Dow based the ideal form.of design on Japanese art. The
rhythmic arrangement of space, the cropping of the scene, a flat
and bold coloring, and decorative qualities are taken from Ukiyo-e
prints. Moreover, to make the picture appeal more directly to the
spectator's senses, Dow further developed the gradation technique
of Zen ink painting to create the harmonic relation between color

and tone .

 

183W, 1913, p.5

189Jonnson, 1934, p.107

19°Arthur wesley Dow, “Talks on Appreciation of Art.‘ The_Delineater.
January 1915, NO. I

lglibid.

19Zibid.

55

According to Dow, a harmonious combination of lines produced
a balanced composition with a beautiful movement or rhythm, Dow
appreciated the artistic quality and.power of Japanese brush lines
which also created a rhythmical arrangement. He particularly
admired the linear quality of Shubun, Kenzan and the Kano school
which are shown in his book Cemposition as fine models for students
to study. In one of his articles, Dow praised a rhythmical line of
Japanese landscape painting and wrote: “...he [the Japanese artist]
presents that to us in a few powerful brush strokes showing how the
‘willow curves in the wind and rain. If we are looking for quality
in art, we shall look at his line and admire it.“193

Dow noted that dark-and-light was “a kind of music that comes
to the eye just as sounds do to the ear.“194 The expression of
poetic and.mysterious feeling can be delivered like melodies
through a harmonious arrangement of black and white lines. Dow
noted that the picturesque quality of a natural scene could be
found in the Japanese rough ink paintings which represent a scene
like musical harmony through mysterious dark-and—light effects.195
By observing the spiritual interpretation of nature through a
simplified form composed by the fewest lines and tones of ink, Dow
suggested that artists look for “dramatic, mysterious, elusive

tone-harmony“ and masterful brushwork.196

 

193ibid.

194Arthur Wesley Dow, “Talks on Appreciation of Art, “ W,
January 1915, No. III

195Dow, 1913, p.54

196ibid., p.96

56

Some of these priest-artists of the Zen,
Mokkei, Kakei, Bayen in China; Shubun, Sesshu in
Japan, rank.with the great painters of all time.
...To them we look for the truly artistic
interpretation of nature; for dramatic,
nysterious, elusive tone-harmony; for supreme
skill in brush-work. 197

Dow's adoption of the concept of dark-and—light to color
resulted in giving an increased mysterious and harmonious feeling
to his pictures. He applied the arrangement of notan that
represented “the harmonies of tone-composition“ of Japanese ink
painting to his color prints.198 Dow's color prints reveal his use
of the “notan of color“199 (colors in light to dark values) in
their use of subtle values. Ukiyo-e landscape prints are fine
examples of the adoption of the dark-and-light technique of ink
paintings to color prints, and Dow suggested using these prints to
teach “peculiar color-feeling“ and “refinements of tone.“ Dow
defined them as the “most convenient and inspiring color-
models . “200

Dow found a musical quality in the arrangement of rhythmic
lines, masses and the harmonious relations of color and tone. Hence

Dow increasingly explored rhythmic linear textures and tonal

 

197ibid.

19811318., p.113
199ibid., p.102
2°°ibid., p.117

57

harmonies in order to convey visual music. As a result, Dow's later
prints moved closer to abstraction.

Dow's simple and flat style shows the picture as not
imitating nature but representing a conceptual idea of nature.
Dow's woodcuts were deeply influenced by Japanese Ukiyo-e prints
and Zen ink.paintings in their composition, style, color, format
and techniques. Later, he found that developing the color
composition with light-to-dark values would convey an increasingly
harmonious melody similar to visual music.

Compared to the traditional western system of realism, Dow's
mature style was very simple and abstract, however, he never
abandoned representation, unlike some European non-representational
artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Robert Delaunay and Piet
Mondrian.201 As did Fenollosa, Dow believed that painting is the
union of a representational subject and harmonious form.202 If the
subject is more powerful than the form, it would be in the realm of
poetry; and if the form controls the subject, it would be in the
realm of music.203 While his harmonious form expressed music-like
qualities, he absolutely needed to represent a subject because he
thought that visual art should represent both subject and form,
unlike poetry or music. Consequently, throughout his life Dow's

subjects were beautiful natural landscapes.

 

201Lancaster, 1969, p.287
2°2Johnson, 1934, p. 107
20311616.

CONCLUSION

As other authors have noted, Japonisme contributed to
liberating European modernists from the classical academy. Artists
in this period felt that art was not a mere imitation of nature but
the expression of an idea, or the conceptual idea of nature. This
idealism, supported by many historians, philosophers, and artists,
was popularized during the second half of 19th century by its
advocate John Ruskin in Europe. James Jackson Jarves and Ernest
Fenollosa were notable for insisting on using Japanese methods of
representation to revitalize western Art. Fenollosa, as an
American, in particular claimed that relatively subjective
representation of Japanese academic painting would contribute to
the development of a new American art style.

Dow, as an artist, developed Fenollosa's concepts and
established his style as a fusion of Eastern technique and western
expression. Following Fenollosa's concept of pictorial composition,
Dow created simple and harmonious images through the arrangement of
lines, masses and colors. As a result, Dow abandoned three-
dimensional illusion in favor of the flat arrangement of simple
masses and shapes on the same pictorial plane. This flat style of
Dow's prints was established by the influence of Japanese art; Dow
Particularly developed the composition from Hiroshige's woodcuts,

and tonal coloration from both Ukiyo-e prints and ink paintings.

58

59

.Although Hiroshige was most influential in developing Dow's
composition, Dow's style was also inspired by the Impressionists
who previously applied the manner of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints to
their works. It was the Impressionists who first abandoned a
naturalistic illusionism in painting. Edouard Manet, for example,

‘ abandoned linear perspective and solid modeling of objects through
light and color, resulting in the representation of a flat picture
plane and simplified forms.m“ Claude Monet, a leading artist among
the Impressionists, was also inspired by Ukiyo-e prints. The impact
of Ukiyo—e prints on Monet's works can be seen in the use of a high
viewpoint, panorama-like view, asymmetrical composition with
cropped figures and ambiguous treatment of space (“compressed
space“).205 These elements of Japanese influence can also be
observed in Dow's woodcuts and show Dow's link with the
Impressionist style.

James McNeill Whistler, one of Dow's favorite artists,“” also
influenced Dow. Because of his tenet of “Art for Art's Sake“ and
the influence of Japanese art, Whistler turned away from
naturalistic representation; instead, he developed a decorative
fonm through the arrangement of space, light and color.207 As with
Fenollosa and Dow, Whistler did not see art as a simple copy of

Nature but a beautiful design depending on the artist's

 

 

20“Klaus Berger,
(Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p.21
2°5ibid., p.74, p.85

206Johnson, 1934, p.54

2°7Berger, 1992, p.43

60

creativity.208 Whistler supported the idea that art is superior to
nature. Whistler's words demonstrate this: “Nature is usually
wrong: . . .seldom does Nature succeed in producing a picture. “209
Whistler's series of Nocturnes, painted from 1871 on, display the
transformation of nature into poetic and musical expression.210

What Dow admired in Whistler was a notion of creating
paintings as a poetic and musical expression. As Whistler explored
tonalism - dark tones with subtle gradations - inspired by Far
Eastern ink painting, Dow adopted the gradation technique of ink
painting to his color woodcuts. Understanding the effects of the
gradations in ink through Whistler's works that showed “harmonies
of white on white, black on black, “211 Dow experimented with
creating harmonies of color, tone and value in order to increase a
poetic and musical impression of nature.

Dow's prints after the mid-18903, increasingly express the
artist's impressions through simple compositions with the subtle
gradations of color. These works are more subjective than his
earlier prints. Whistler's adoption of a gradation technique of ink
played an important role in showing Dow how to create pictures as
visual music. Dow's use of this technique evidenced by prints such
as August Moon and Rain in May, reflect Whistler's suggestive and

elusive tonal paintings. Hence, Dow's mature style became

 

2°$ibid., p.38

209ibid., Berger's quotation from 'Mr. Whistler's “Ten O'clock“', in
Whistler, 111W, London 1890, p. 142-3
Zloibid” p.40

211ibid., p.41, Berger's quotation form 'Whistler,' Kunst und Kunstler,
1904, vol. 3, p.454

61

increasingly abstract; the brush-like flowing lines divide the
picture space into simplified masses, subtle gradations of tone
provide elusive atmosphere and colors become more limited. It seems
that the style was more simplified and abstract than Ukiyo-e prints
themselves, rather moving towards that of Zen ink painting. Just as
Zen painting expresses the artists' inner emotions and spirits,
Dow's mature style increasingly conveys the artist's poetic
feelings about nature.

Dow's poetic and musical expression was primarily developed
by Japanese Ukiyo-e prints, ink paintings and Whistler's tonalism,
The increased abstract quality in his later prints reveals Dow's
contribution to the development of the modern style in America,
which Fenollosa also anticipated. Dow's flat and simple style in
his prints was innovative in America; however, Dow never went
beyond a representational style. Dow's concept about visual art was
always the union of a representational subject and harmonious form,

The contribution of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints as well as
Japanese academic paintings gave Dow an idea of subjective
representation. Hiroshige's Ukiyo-e prints suggested to him.how to
express the artist's impression of Beauty, not realistically but
expressively. As a result, Dow's prints became more subjective,
expressive and innovative than his paintings, because print could
reflect more freely these Japanese aspects than painting. With the
union of a representational subject and harmonious form, Dow
developed his own style of expressive representation. Dow portrayed
the beauty of the New England landscape in his own style; however,

it also reflected Hiroshige's appreciation of nature. Dow's

62

representation of natural beauty is closer to Hiroshige's
sentimental beauty of nature than any other artists who were

inspired by Japanese around the turn of the century.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX

nut. in;

«5..

 

Figure l. Dow's ink drawing shows practice of haboku

and notan cchct Figure 2. Dow. Harbor Scene, c.1895

Color woodcut

63

64

 

 

I ‘ J . . . - . : »
Figure 3; HWShIBCv Ben/(ci Moo! _ . _ . , Ed Figure 5. Hiroshige, Horiki: The Iris Gardens
from the One Hundred VIcws ol Famous Plutcs In 0 from a series of thc Onc Hun dr ed Views
of Famous placcs in Edo

:_‘¢.\

\ III-I
‘WYIYI‘X (iv

.‘7

 

Figure 6. Vincent van Gogh, lrixes, I889
Oil on canvas

Figure 4. Dow, Along Ipswich River. c.1893
Color woodcut

 

    

Figure 8. Hiroshige, Narumi: .
Figure 7. Do“ Untitled print,c c.l895 Arimatsu sIu'bori from The 53 Stations of The Tokmdo

Color woodcut

 

Figure It). Hirmhige,
Rvogoku Bridge

 

Figure 9. Do“ Iprwu I1 Bridge
c.1893-1895
Color woodcut

 

Figure I]. James ndNcill Whistler,
Old Battersea Brid

Nocturne in Blue and Gold, 1373-5

66

‘71

 

Figure 12. Dow, Modern Arr. c.1895
Color lithograph

 

Figure l3. Hiroshige, Basho's Hermitage
and Camellia Hill on the Kanda Aqueducl
at Sekiguchi from the One Hundred Views
of Famous Places in Edo

Figure 14. Hiroshige. Chiyadagaike Pond
from the One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo

 

67

 

Figure 17.
Dow, Clam House in Winler. c. I910
Color woodcut

 

   

Figure 18.

~ Dow, Clam House at Niglu, c. 1910
Figure 15. Dow, Ben! of a River, c. I895 COIOF WOOdCUI

Color woodcut

 

 

  
  

   

\~_ 4,.

. " . » 'a’" sex ( .
‘Qffiuafi‘a- “fie-”’31 .-
Ax “ .. - , -

 

Figure I9.
Hiroshige, Kambara: Snow at night
r mm “W 53 SW0“ or Thc TOWdO from The 53 Stations of the Tokaido

  

     
 
    
    

Figure 20.
Dow, Bend of a River (sunset), c.1898
Color woodcut

    

Figure 2|.
Dow, Flowering ()n‘hard, l92l
Color woodcut

 

1‘. '.

 

Evening Glow, n.d.
Color woodcut

 

...t',,
V.
- .

,
":4

fli‘ I fil’aafig,

. .a;

 

Willows in Bloom, n.d.
Color woodcut

 

---v . t

Figure 22.
Dow, The Deserl, c.19l 1-12
Color woodcut. two variations

Figure 23.
Dow, August Moon. c.1905
Color woodcut

 

Figure 24.
Dow, Moonrise, c. 1898-1905
Color woodcut

69

 

Figure 25.
Dow, Marx/i Creek, c.l9()5
Color Woodcut

 

 

Figure 27. Hiroshige

Benlcn Shrine, Inokashira [’0an
from the One Hundred Views
of Famous Places in Edo

 

Figure 26.
Dow, Rain in May. c.1908

‘ull

twin.

i
‘ .15. ,1.

 

 

‘55“ 9‘3? "in

Figure 28. Harry Mayne '5' House
from Ipswich Summer School of Art

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ando, Hiroshige. W (New York:
Brooklyn Museum) 1986

Berger. Klaus. aauonisme_in_flestern_2aintiuo_£orm_uhistler_tu
Matisse (Cambridge; NEW’YOIK: Cambridge University
Press) 1992

Bicknell, Julian. Hiroshige_iu_mokzo (San Francisco: Pomegranate
Artbooks) 1994

Bosanquet, Bernard. (trans.) MW

Philosouhx_or_ziue_Art (London: Kegan Paul. Trench & Co.)
1886

Cate. Phillip Dennis. Wu
RM (Santa Barbara: F. Smith) 1978

Chisolm. Lawrence w. W
Culture (New Heaven: Yale University Press) 1963

Cohen. Warren I. W (New York:
Columbia University Press) 1992

Dow, Arthur Wesley. mention (New York: Doubleday, Page &
Company) 1916

---. "Printing from Wood Blocks." WW July
1916

---. 'Talks on Appreciation of Art,“ Ihg_pelineatg; January 1915

70

71

Dufwa, Jacques. W (New Jersey: Humanities
Press) 1981

“11011088: Ernest . W

W (Boston: Museum of
Fine Arts) 1895

Green. Nancy. WW (Ithaca. New
York: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University)

1990

Hills. Patricia. - - -

W (New York: Whitney
Museum.of American Art) 1977

Hisamastu, Shinichi. Zeu_aud_the_Eiue_Ar.ts (New York:
Kodansha) 1971

Hook. Dorothy W

W (Doctor 5
dissertation, Pennsylvania State university) 1987

Hosaka. Kiyoshi. EeanlQaa (Japan: Kawaide shobo) 1989

Jarves. James Jackson. W (Vermont
and Japan: Charles E. Tuttle Company) 1984

Jonson: Afthur Warren. WW
Teacher (Ipswich. Mass.: Ipswich Historical Society) 1934

Kanbayashi,Tsunemiti. Nihgn_nQ_Bi_np_Kataghi (Japan: Sekai
Shosya) 1991

Kaplan. Wendy. WW
Americai_lfili;1229 (Boston: Little, Brown and Company) 1987

Keene. Donald. Ware (London:
George Allen & Unwin Ltd.) 1956

72

Lancaster. Clay. W (New York:
walton H. Rawls) 1963

---. “Synthesis: The Artistic Theory of Fenollosa and Dow‘, A;L_
figurnal vol. 28, Spring 1969

Lears. Jackson T. J. W (New York: Pantheon
Books) 1981

Meech, Julia and weisberg, Gabriel P. Japgnimg_CQmes_Lg
America (New York: Harryn Abrams INC.) 1990

Mills. Sally. WW
(Massachusetts: McClelland Press. 1981)

Moffatt, Frederick C. Arthur_u2slez_uow (Washington D.C.: The
Smithsonian Institution Press) 1977

Murakata. Akiko. WW (Japan:
MuseumrShuppan) Japanese Edition vol.I, II, III. 1982

Narazaki, Muneshige. Hiroshige (Tokyo:Shimizu Shoin) 1971

---. Waldo (TokYO: Kodansha
International) 1982

---. Wide (Japan: Kodansha) 1954

---. Studies_in_uatnre (California: Kodansha) 1970

Okakura, Kakuzo. W ( Tokyo, Japan: Kenkyusha) 1952

---. Qkakuraleushiulsmsm (Japan: Heibonsha) 1979

Rowland, Benjamin, JR. “The Interpaly between American and

Japanese Art " WW
CBnLnIY_America (New York: Metropolitan Museum.of Art) 1972

Smith. Henry D. II. W.
(New York: George Braziller, Inc.) 1986

73

Steegmuller. Francis. Wares

(New York: Yale University Press) 1951

Weaver . Mike . AW (New

York: Aperture Foundation) 1986

Weisberg, Gabriel p. and Weisberg, Yvonne M. L. W

W (New York & London: Garland
Publishing) 1990

Whitehill. Walter Muir. WWW.
W (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press) 1970

Whitford. Frank. W (New York:
Macmillan Publishing Co.) 1977

Wichmann, Siegfried. Japonisme (New York: Harmony Books) 1981
Yamada, Chisaburo. W (Tokyo: Kodansha) 1980

---. W (Japan: Kodansya) 1979

Yamaguchi, Seiich. W vol.I, II (Japan: Sanseido) 1982
Yashiro, Yukio. WILL: (Tokyo: Iwanami) 1965

Yoshikawa. Itsuji. (trans. by Armins Nikovskis) W
W (New York: Weatherhill) 1976

The American Art Galleries. Worm
W (New York: The

American Art Association) 1923

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. W

W (New York: the Metropolitan Museum
of Art. Rizzoli) 1986

"‘iiiiiiiliilliili