Impasto: A Digital Museum

                                  John Everett Millais,  Ophelia , 1851-1852, oil on canvas, 76.2 x 111.8 cm, Tate Britain, London  The Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais (1829-1896) is well-known today for his depiction of Ophelia, from Shakespeare's  Hamlet , at the moment of her drowning. It hangs in Tate Britain, London, and attracts visitors from all over the world. When it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1852, however, there were mixed opinions. Some reviewers admired its colours, relishing in every detail of the plants and flowers. Millais was particularly successful in rendering realistic plants, to the point that they were seen as botanical studies, because he followed John Ruskin's dictum "to reject nothing, select nothing, and scorn nothing". In other words, depict nature in painstaking detail.  In 1851, Millais set out to ...

Western museums proudly display that some of the artists whose work they exhibit were inspired by Japanese art and aesthetics. When Japanese trade reached western countries like Britain and France in the mid-19th century, there was indeed an appreciation for all things Japanese. Artists like Vincent Van Gogh, James McNeill Whistler, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, James Tissot, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, and Claude Monet were drawn into what would become known as japonisme, a term coined by Philippe Burty in 1872 to describe the popularity of Japanese artworks in Paris and London.    Gustave Léonard de Jonghe, The Admirer of Japan , c. 1865, oil on canvas, 112.4 x 86.5 cm, Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens  Sure, japonisme  was a western phenomenon that led to a widespread appreciation of Japanese art and also led to major new developments in western art, such as the impressionist emphasis on everyday subject matter; the unique perspectives applied in ukiyo-e, the Japanese wo...