Japan's love for impressionism: from Monet to Renoir - Hardcover

That rare thing, a fresh perspective on impressionism. Recounting especially Monet's relationship with his Japanese collectors, this catalogue to a current German exhibition reveals stunning paintings - Monet, Manet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Signac Seurat - from collections virtually unknown in the west. --The Financial Times - November 2015

At the end of the nineteenth century Japanese collectors began to put together Impressionist collections of outstanding quality. This development began with the industrialist Kojiro Matsukata, who was a close friend of Claude Monet. Today there are several distinguished collections that are shown in renowned public and private museums. A selection of exquisite works from these Japanese museums now returns exclusively to Europe. At the heart of the exhibition and the book are masterpieces by French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, among them Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Gauguin, Bonnard, Pissarro, Renoir, Signac, Sisley and van Gogh. Their paintings are complemented by a selection of works by Japanese artists from the period before 1920 that laid the foundation for modern, Western-inspired Japanese art. Together, they tell the story of the interaction and two-way artistic influence between Europe and Japan from a new perspective.