Claude Monet's collection of Japanese prints

Claude Monet's collection of japanese prints

Claude Monet's collection of Japanese woodblock prints numbers over two hundred. Preserved in his house at Giverny and displayed in the famous dining room with its panelling in shades of yellow - which regular visitors so loved - it reflects not only Monet's love of line and colour, but also his curiosity and passion for these prints, for their quality and for the conditions of their printing and publication.

While half of this varied collection, built up by Monet over many years, consists of celebrated works by Utamaro, Hokusai and Hiroshige, it also includes many rarer works by artists including Eiri, Eisho and Sharaku.

Like the house and garden at Giverny, this collection reveals a more private side of Monet, less familiar than the legend that has grown up around him. His deep appreciation of these prints is doubtless explained in part by his fellow feeling with these artists of the ukiyo-e school, who were tireless in returning repeatedly to the same subjects, whether views of Mount Fuji or of the sixty provinces. Close parallels between Hokusai and the master of Impressionism are to be found in his tireless repetition of images of Rouen Cathedral, or in his immersion in the contemplation of his famous water lilies.