The 19th-century French artist Felix Braquemont had a great influence on the development of Japonism in France. This artistic movement was formed in Western European art thanks to the ukiyo-e color engravings brought from Japan. However, Braquemont discovered Asian art much earlier than the famous masters of his era – back in 1856, when he came across a collection of Hokusai’s drawings. At that time, the artist was only 23 years old, and he was actively creating etchings. This discovery influenced Braquemont not only as a graphic artist.
In 1860, the artist got a job in the workshop of the French ceramist Theodore Deck, and later worked with the master Eugène Rousseau. The latter commissioned him to design a service for presentation at the 1867 World Exhibition, and Braquemont used a Japanese theme. He reworked Hokusai's images of birds, fish and plants so that they could be transferred to ceramics. Rousseau liked the execution and placed a large order: production was set up at the Creil-Montereau factory, which was capable of producing a large number of high-quality pieces. Braquemont prepared the drawings, pasted them onto the ceramic surface, and when the paper burned during the firing process, only the images remained on the dishes. The drawings were then painted over, after which the objects were fired again.
Despite its novelty, which could have put off critics, the service was a great success, elicited enthusiastic reviews, and in the following decades it was repeatedly produced by different factories. For Western art, this was something completely new, especially against the background of the classical motifs that decorated Sèvres porcelain. This fusion of European and Japanese aesthetics became one of the key events in the further development of French art.
Source: musee-orsay.fr
