ANALYZING LATE 19TH & EARLY 20TH CENTURY ARTWORKS AND THEIR INFLUENCE FROM JAPanese art

Left Image; "Otome" - woodblock print, ink and colour on paper - c.1818-1823 - Kikukawa Eizan
​
Right Image; "Maternal Caress" - oil on canvas - c.1902 - Mary Stevenson Cassat

In Cassat's painting here, we can see she has taken elements from Japanese art, particularly her use of dividing space in to geometric units, which is evident throughout the composition. Western art history has had it's fair share of 'mother & child' paintings, however it's clear in this instance that Cassat has been influenced by the intimacy and affection between the two subjects, something which was not previously a common factor in such paintings. It would've been very unusual at the time for traditional western artworks to show affection and emotion in their subjects. The background of this piece is also rather minimal in comparison to similar works of the same period, another factor which was commonplace in Japanese art.