Japanese painting is ancient species art. It includes various forms, genres and diverse content.
Japanese painting is the oldest form of art. It includes various forms, genres and diverse content. Elegant art presents the world with pictures that are screens, wall paintings, silk or paper scrolls, fans, easel paintings and engravings.
Japanese painting is distinguished by a wide variety of genres and styles. Leading place V Japanese painting, as in literature, takes nature. She is presented as the guardian of the divine principle. Japanese painting originates in Chinese art, so its genres are very similar to those of the Celestial Empire. Nowadays, many Japanese artists prefer to study in China.
Painting in Japan has several stages in its history. Each of them has its own characteristics and special features.
The initial stage of development is considered to be the time period from the middle of the seventh century to the end of the eighth century, called Nara. During this period, the temple of Horyuji was painted; it is an excellent evidence of the influence of Indian and Chinese traditions on Japanese culture.
The next period in the development of Japanese painting is called heian. It is famous for the active flourishing of temple painting and examples of secular image art. During this period, illustrations were created for novels and stories designed to entertain noble gentlemen.
Period Kamakura(occupies a time period from the end of the 12th century to the first half of the 14th century), which occupied the time period from the end of the twelfth century to the first half of the fourteenth century, is characterized by a change in styles, the search for new ways of depicting life. The mood of Japanese painting is changing dramatically. Earlier paintings conveyed an optimistic, light and joyful atmosphere. During this period, a big step was taken towards realistic image, as well as giving the picture an almost military character. Characteristic subjects of painting - battle scenes from myths and history, religious scenes from the Buddhist tradition. The image of portraits of important statesmen is widespread.
During Muromachi(the time period from the first half of the 14th century to the second half of the 16th century), the trend that glorified Japanese painting all over the world comes to the fore. The philosophy of Zen Buddhism had a significant influence on painting, as a result of which the popularity gained landscape art. Monochrome technique received special elegance. During this period, Japanese painting was influenced by China. The most famous japan artist At that time, Toyo Oda, who specialized in painting landscapes, created the first paintings when he traveled around the Middle Kingdom. He developed the direction already at home.
The above trend was actively developed and supplemented during the following two periods in the development of Japanese painting - Monoyama And edo. Monochrome technique was a more sophisticated option. Carefully worked out and painted the details. The artists were not afraid of experiments and began to apply the techniques previously used in painting on scrolls and screens, in wall painting. Landscapes and mass scenes began to be supplemented psychological stories, demonstrating the hero at the moment of strong emotional stress. Apart from traditional painting In Japan, woodcut engraving was actively spread. It was divided into two types: theatrical engraving and everyday writing engraving. by the most famous master theatrical engraving is Choshusai Syaraku. Engraving of everyday life was actively developed in the work of Suzuki Harunobu and Kitagawa Utamaro.
Every country has its heroes contemporary art, whose names are well-known, whose exhibitions gather crowds of fans and curious people, and whose works are distributed among private collections.
In this article, we will introduce you to the most popular contemporary artists Japan.
Keiko Tanabe
Born in Kyoto, Keiko won many art competitions as a child, but her higher education was not in the arts at all. Worked in the department international relations with a Japanese self-government trade organization in Tokyo, with a major law firm in San Francisco, and with a private consulting firm in San Diego, traveled extensively. Starting in 2003, she left her job and, after learning the basics of watercolor painting in San Diego, devoted herself exclusively to art.
Ikenaga Yasunari (Ikenaga Yasunari)
Japanese artist Ikenaga Yasunari paints portraits modern women in ancient Japanese tradition painting using the Menso brush, mineral pigments, carbon black, ink and linen as a base. His characters are women of our time, but thanks to the style of Nihonga, there is a feeling that they came to us from ancient times.
Abe Toshiyuki
Abe Toshiyuki is a realist artist who has mastered watercolor technique. Abe can be called an artist-philosopher: he fundamentally does not draw well-known landmarks, preferring subjective compositions that reflect internal states the person watching them.
Hiroko Sakai
The career of the artist Hiroko Sakai began in the early 90s in the city of Fukuoka. After graduating from Seinan Gakuin University and Nihon French School of Interior Design in design and visualization, she founded "Atelier Yume-Tsumugi Ltd." and successfully managed this studio for 5 years. Many of her works adorn the lobbies of hospitals, offices of large corporations and some municipal buildings in Japan. After moving to the United States, Hiroko began to paint in oils.
Riusuke Fukahori
The three-dimensional works of Ryuusuki Fukahori are like holograms. They are done acrylic paint layered, and transparent liquid resin, all of which, along with traditional methods such as shadowing, softening edges, controlling transparency, allow Ryusuki to create sculptural paintings and give depth and realism to the work.
Natsuki Otani
Natsuki Otani is a talented Japanese illustrator living and working in England.
Makoto Muramatsu
Makoto Muramatsu chose a win-win theme as the basis for his work - he draws cats. His pictures are popular all over the world, especially in the form of puzzles.
Tetsuya Mishima
Most of the paintings by contemporary Japanese artist Mishima are made in oils. She has been professionally engaged in painting since the 90s, she has several solo exhibitions and a large number of collective exhibitions, both Japanese and foreign.
Japanese painting is an absolutely unique direction in world art. It has existed since ancient times, but as a tradition it has not lost its popularity and ability to surprise.
Attention to traditions
The East is not only landscapes, mountains and rising Sun. These are also the people who created its history. It is these people who have maintained the tradition of Japanese painting for many centuries, developing and multiplying their art. Those who made a significant contribution to the history of Japanese artists. It is thanks to them that modern ones have retained all the canons of traditional Japanese painting.
Painting style
Unlike Europe, Japanese artists preferred to paint closer to graphics than to painting. In such paintings one cannot find the rough, careless strokes of oil that are so characteristic of the Impressionists. What is the graphic nature of such art as Japanese trees, rocks, animals and birds - everything in these pictures is drawn as clearly as possible, with firm and confident ink lines. All objects in the composition must have an outline. Filling inside the contour is usually done in watercolor. The color is washed out, other shades are added, and somewhere the color of the paper is left. Decorativeness is exactly what distinguishes Japanese paintings from the art of the whole world.
Contrasts in painting
Contrast is another characteristic technique used by Japanese artists. This may be a difference in tone, color, or a contrast of warm and cold shades.
The artist resorts to a technique when he wants to highlight some element of the subject. It can be a vein on a plant, a single petal or a tree trunk against the sky. Then the light, illuminated part of the object and the shadow under it are depicted (or vice versa).
Transitions and colors
When drawing Japanese paintings, transitions are often used. They are different: for example, from one color to another. On the petals of water lilies, peonies, you can notice the transition from a light shade to a rich, bright one of some color.
Also, transitions are used in the image of the water surface, the sky. The smooth transition from sunset to dark, deepening twilight looks very beautiful. In drawing clouds, transitions from different shades and reflections are also used.
The main motives of Japanese painting
In art, everything is connected with real life, with the feelings and emotions of those involved in it. As in literature, music and other manifestations of creativity, there are several eternal themes in painting. This historical plots, images of people and nature.
Japanese landscapes are varied. Often in the paintings there are images of ponds - a favorite subject of the interior of the Japanese. Decorative pond, several water lilies and bamboo nearby - this is what it looks like ordinary picture 17-18 centuries.
Animals in Japanese painting
Animals are also a recurring element in Asian painting. Traditionally, it is a crouching tiger or a domestic cat. In general, Asians are very fond of and therefore their representatives are found in all forms of oriental art.
The world of fauna is another theme followed by Japanese painting. Birds - cranes, decorative parrots, luxurious peacocks, swallows, inconspicuous sparrows and even roosters - all of them are found in the drawings of oriental masters.
Fish - no less actual topic For Japanese artists. Koi are the Japanese version of the goldfish. These creatures live in Asia in all ponds, even small parks and gardens. Koi carp is a kind of tradition that belongs specifically to Japan. These fish symbolize struggle, determination, achieving one's goal. No wonder they are depicted as floating with the flow, always with decorative wave crests.
Japanese paintings: depiction of people
People in Japanese painting are a special theme. The artists depicted geishas, emperors, warriors and elders.
Geisha are depicted surrounded by flowers, always wearing elaborate robes with many folds and elements.
Wise men are depicted sitting or explaining something to their students. The image of an old scientist is a symbol of the history, culture and philosophy of Asia.
The warrior was portrayed as formidable, sometimes intimidating. The long ones were drawn in detail and looked like a wire.
Usually all the details of the armor are refined with ink. Often, naked warriors are decorated with tattoos depicting an oriental dragon. It is a symbol of strength and military power Japan.
The rulers were portrayed for the imperial families. Beautiful robes, ornaments in the hair of men - that such works of art abound.
landscapes
Traditional Japanese landscape - mountains. Asian painters have succeeded in depicting a variety of landscapes: they can depict the same peak in different colors, with different atmospheres. The only thing that remains unchanged is the mandatory presence of flowers. Usually, along with the mountains, the artist depicts some kind of plant in the foreground and draws it in detail. Mountains and cherry blossoms look beautiful. And if you draw falling petals - the picture is admired by the sad beauty. The contrast in the atmosphere of the painting is another remarkable quality of Japanese culture.
Hieroglyphs
Often the composition of a picture in Japanese painting is combined with letters. Hieroglyphs are arranged so that it looks beautiful compositionally. Usually they are drawn on the left or right of the picture. Hieroglyphs can indicate what is depicted in the picture, its name or the name of the artist.
Japan is one of the richest countries in history and culture. All over the world, it is customary to consider the Japanese as pedantic people who find aesthetics in absolutely all manifestations of life. Therefore, Japanese paintings are always very harmonious in color and tone: if there are inclusions of some bright color- then only in the semantic centers. On the example of paintings by Asian artists, one can study color theory, the correct transfer of form using graphics, and composition. Technique Japanese paintings is so high that it can serve as an example for working with watercolors and “washing” graphic works.
Yayoi Kusama is unlikely to be able to answer what formed the basis of her career as an artist. She is 87 years old, her art is recognized all over the world. Major exhibitions of her work will soon be held in the US and Japan, but she hasn't told the world everything yet. “It's still on the way. I'm going to create this in the future," says Kusama. She is called the most successful artist in Japan. In addition, she is the most expensive living artist: in 2014, her painting "White No. 28" was sold for $7.1 million.
Kusama lives in Tokyo and has been voluntarily in a psychiatric hospital for almost forty years. Once a day she leaves her walls to paint. She gets up at three o'clock in the morning, unable to sleep and wanting to make good use of her time at work. “Now I'm old, but I'm still going to create more work and better work. More than I have done in the past. My mind is full of pictures,” she says.
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Yayoi Kusama at an exhibition of his work in London in 1985. Photo: NILS JORGENSEN/REX/Shutterstock
From nine to six, Kusama works in his three-story studio without getting up from wheelchair. She can walk but is too weak. A woman works on a canvas laid out on tables or fixed on the floor. The studio is full of new paintings, bright works strewn with small specks. The artist calls this "self-silencing" - endless repetition that drowns out the noise in her head.
Before the 2006 Praemium Imperiale Art Awards in Tokyo. Photo: Sutton-Hibbert/REX/Shutterstock
Across the road will open soon new gallery, and another museum of her art is being built north of Tokyo. In addition, two major exhibitions of her work are opening. Yayoi Kusama: Infinite Mirrors, a retrospective of her 65-year career, opened at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington on February 23 and runs until May 14, after which it will travel to Seattle, Los Angeles, Toronto and Cleveland. The exposition includes 60 paintings by Kusama.
Her peas cover everything from Louis Vuitton dresses to buses in her hometown. Kusama's work is regularly sold for millions of dollars and is found all over the world - from New York to Amsterdam. Exhibitions of the Japanese artist's work are so popular that measures are required to prevent stampede and riots. For example, in the Hirshhorn, exhibition tickets are sold at certain time to somehow regulate the flow of visitors.
Presentation of the joint design of Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama in New York in 2012. Photo: Billy Farrell Agency/REX/Shutterstock
But Kusama still needs outside approval. When asked in an interview about whether she achieved her goal of becoming rich and famous decades ago, she said in surprise: “When I was little, it was very difficult for me to convince my mother that I wanted to become an artist. Is it really true that I'm rich and famous?"
Kusama was born in Matsumoto, in the mountains of Central Japan, in 1929 to a wealthy and conservative family that sold seedlings. But it was not a happy home. Her mother despised her cheating husband and sent little Kusama to spy on him. The girl saw her father with other women, and this caused in her a lifelong aversion to sex.
Louis Vuitton shop window designed by Kusama in 2012. Photo: Joe Schildhorn/BFA/REX/Shutterstock
As a child, she began to experience visual and auditory hallucinations. The first time she saw a pumpkin, she imagined it was talking to her. The future artist coped with visions by creating repeating patterns to drown out the thoughts in her head. Even at such a young age, art became a kind of therapy for her, which she would later call "art medicine."
Yayoi Kusama's work on display at the Museum contemporary art Whitney in 2012. Photo: Billy Farrell Agency/REX/Shutterstock
Kusama's mother was strongly opposed to her daughter's desire to become an artist and insisted that the girl follow the traditional path. “She wouldn’t let me draw. She wanted me to get married,” the artist said in an interview. She threw away my work. I wanted to throw myself under a train. Every day I fought with my mother, and therefore my mind was damaged.
In 1948, after the end of the war, Kusama went to Kyoto to study traditional Japanese nihonga painting with strict rules. She hated this art form.
One of the exhibits of Yayoi Kusama's exhibition at the Whitney Museum of Modern Art in 2012. Photo: Billy Farrell Agency/REX/Shutterstock
When Kusama lived in Matsumoto, she found a book by Georgia O'Keeffe and was amazed by her paintings. The girl went to the American embassy in Tokyo to find an article about O'Keeffe in the directory and find out her address. Kusama wrote her a letter and sent some drawings, and to her surprise, American artist answered her.
“I couldn't believe my luck! She was so kind that she responded to the sudden outburst of feelings of a modest japanese girls, whom she had never met or even heard of in her life,” the artist wrote in her autobiography, Infinity Net.
Yayoi Kusama in a window she designed for Louis Vuitton in New York in 2012. Photo: Nils Jorgensen/REX/Shutterstock
Despite O'Keeffe's warnings that young artists in the US are having a hard time, not to mention young single girls from Japan, Kusama was unstoppable. In 1957, she managed to get a passport and a visa. She sewed dollars into her dresses to get around strict post-war foreign exchange controls.
The first stop was Seattle, where she held an exhibition in a small gallery. Then Kusama went to New York, where she was bitterly disappointed. “Unlike the post-war Matsumoto, New York was in every way an evil and violent place. For me, it was too stressful, and I soon became mired in neurosis. To make matters worse, Kusama ended up in total poverty. She used an old door as a bed, and fished fish heads and rotten vegetables out of trash cans to make soup from.
Installation Infinity Mirror Room - Love Forever ("Room with mirrors of infinity - love forever"). Photo: Tony Kyriacou/REX/Shutterstock
This difficult situation prompted Kusama to immerse himself even more in his work. She began to create her first paintings in the Infinity Web series, covering huge canvases (one of them reached 10 meters high) with mesmerizing waves of small loops that seemed to never end. The artist herself described them as follows: “White nets enveloping the black dots of silent death against the backdrop of the hopeless darkness of nothingness.”
Installation by Yayoi Kusama at the opening of the new building of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art at the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Culture in Moscow in 2015. Photo: David X Prutting/BFA.com/REX/Shutterstock
This obsessive-compulsive repetition helped to drive away the neurosis, but it did not always save. Kusama constantly suffered from bouts of psychosis and ended up in a New York hospital. Being ambitious and purposeful and happily taking on the role of an exotic Asian in a kimono, she joined the crowd influential people in art and interacted with such recognized artists as Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol. Kusama later said that Warhol imitated her work.
Kusama soon gained a certain degree of fame and exhibited in crowded galleries. In addition, the fame of the artist has become scandalous.
In the 1960s, when Kusama was obsessed with polka dots, she began to arrange happenings in New York: she provoked people to strip naked in places like Central Park and the Brooklyn Bridge, and painted their bodies with polka dots.
Previewed at Art Basel Hong Kong 2013. Photo: Billy Farrell/BFA/REX/Shutterstock
Decades before the emergence of the Occupy Wall Street movement, Kusama staged a happening in New York's financial district, saying she wanted to "destroy the men of Wall Street with polka dots." Around the same time, she began to cover various objects - a chair, a boat, a carriage - with phallic-looking bulges. “I started creating penises to cure my sex aversion,” the artist wrote, describing how this creative process gradually turned the horrific into something familiar.
Passing Winter installation at the Tate Gallery in London. Photo: James Gourley/REX/Shutterstock
Kusama has never been married, although while living in New York she had a marriage-like relationship with artist Joseph Cornell for ten years. “I didn’t like sex, and he was impotent, so we were very good for each other,” she said in an interview with Art Magazine.
Kusama became increasingly famous for her antics: she offered to sleep with U.S. President Richard Nixon if he ended the Vietnam War. "Let's decorate each other with polka dots," she wrote to him in a letter. Interest directly in her art faded, she fell out of favor, and money problems began again.
Yayoi Kusama during a retrospective of her work at the Whitney Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2012. Photo: Steve Eichner/Penske Media/REX/Shutterstock
News of Kusama's escapades reached Japan. She began to be called a "national disaster", and her mother said that it would be better if her daughter had died of an illness in childhood. In the early 1970s, impoverished and fiasco Kusama returned to Japan. She was registered in a psychiatric hospital, where she still lives, and sunk into artistic obscurity.
In 1989, the Center for Contemporary Art in New York hosted a retrospective of her work. This was the beginning of a slow, but revival of interest in the art of Kusama. She filled a mirror room with pumpkins for an installation that was presented at the Venice Biennale in 1993, and in 1998 had a major exhibition at the MoMa Museum of Modern Art in New York. It was here that she once arranged a happening.
At the My Eternal Soul exhibition in National Center art in Tokyo, February 2017. Photo: Masatoshi Okauchi/REX/Shutterstock
In the past few years, Yayoi Kusama has become an international phenomenon. The contemporary Tate Gallery in London and the Whitney Museum in New York have held major retrospectives that have drawn huge crowds and made her iconic polka dot pattern very recognizable.
At the My Eternal Soul exhibition at the National Art Center in Tokyo, February 2017. Photo: Masatoshi Okauchi/REX/Shutterstock
The artist is not going to stop working, but she began to think about her mortality. “I don't know how long I can survive even after death. There is a future generation that follows in my footsteps. It will be an honor for me if people enjoy looking at my work and if they are moved by my art.”
At the My Eternal Soul exhibition at the National Art Center in Tokyo, February 2017. Photo: Masatoshi Okauchi/REX/Shutterstock
Despite the commercialization of her art, Kusama thinks about the grave in Matsumoto - not in the family vault, she already inherited from her parents - and how not to turn it into a shrine. “But I'm not dying yet. I think I will live another 20 years,” she says.
At the My Eternal Soul exhibition at the National Art Center in Tokyo, February 2017. Photo: Masatoshi Okauchi/REX/Shutterstock
Japanese classical painting has a long and interesting story. The visual arts of Japan are represented in different styles and genres, each of which is unique in its own way. Ancient painted figurines and geometric motifs found on dotaku bronze bells and pottery shards date back to 300 AD.
Buddhist orientation of art
In Japan, the art of wall painting was quite well developed; in the 6th century, images on the theme of the philosophy of Buddhism were especially popular. At that time, large temples were being built in the country, and their walls were everywhere decorated with frescoes painted according to the plots of Buddhist myths and legends. Until now, ancient samples of wall paintings have been preserved in the temple of Horyuji near the Japanese city of Nara. Horyuji's frescoes depict scenes from the life of the Buddha and other gods. The artistic style of these frescoes is very close to the pictorial concept popular in China during the Song Dynasty.
The picturesque style of the Tang Dynasty gained particular popularity in the middle of the Nara period. The frescoes found in the tomb of Takamatsuzuka belong to this period and are dated to around the 7th century AD. Artistic technique, formed under the influence of the Tang dynasty, subsequently formed the basis of the kara-e painting genre. This genre retained its popularity until the appearance of the first works in the yamato-e style. Most of the frescoes and pictorial masterpieces belong to the brush unknown authors, today many of the works from that period are kept in the Sesoin treasury.
The growing influence of new Buddhist schools, such as the Tendai, influenced a broad religious orientation. visual arts Japan in the 8th and 9th centuries. In the 10th century, which saw particular progress Japanese Buddhism, a genre of raigōzu, "welcome paintings" appeared, which depicted the arrival of the Buddha in the Western Paradise. Early examples raigozu dating back to 1053 can be seen at the Bedo-in Temple, which is preserved in Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture.
Changing styles
In the middle of the Heian period to replace Chinese style kara-e comes the yamato-e genre, which for a long time becomes one of the most popular and sought-after genres of Japanese painting. New painterly style mainly used in the painting of folding screens and sliding doors. Over time, yamato-e moved to the horizontal scrolls of emakimono. Artists who worked in the emaki genre tried to convey in their works all the emotionality of the chosen plot. The Genji monogatari scroll consisted of several episodes connected together, the artists of the time used quick strokes and bright, expressive colors.
E-maki is one of the oldest and most prominent examples of otoko-e, a painting genre. male portraits. Women's portraits highlighted in separate genre onna-e. Between these genres, in fact, as well as between men and women, there are quite significant differences. The onna-e style is colorfully represented in the design of the Tale of Genji, where the main themes of the drawings are romantic plots, scenes from court life. Men's style otoko-e is predominantly artistic image historical battles and other important events in the life of the empire.
The classical Japanese art school has become fertile ground for the development and promotion of the ideas of modern Japanese art, which clearly shows the influence of pop culture and anime. One of the most famous Japanese artists of our time is Takashi Murakami, whose work is dedicated to depicting scenes from Japanese life in the post-war period and the concept of the maximum fusion of fine art and the mainstream.
Of the famous Japanese artists of the classical school, the following can be mentioned.
Tense Shubun
Shubun worked at the beginning of the 15th century, devoting a lot of time to studying the works of Chinese masters of the Song Dynasty era, this man stood at the origins of Japanese fine genre. Shubun is considered the founder of sumi-e, monochrome ink painting. He made a lot of efforts to popularize the new genre, turning it into one of the leading trends in Japanese painting. Shubun's students were many who later became famous artists, including Sesshu and the founder of the famous art school Kano Masanobu. Many landscapes have been attributed to Shubun, but his most famous work is traditionally considered Reading in a Bamboo Grove.
Ogata Korin (1658-1716)
Ogata Korin is one of the major artists in the history of Japanese painting, the founder and one of the brightest representatives of the rimpa art style. Korin boldly departed from traditional stereotypes in his works, having formed his own style, the main characteristics of which were small forms and vivid impressionism of the plot. Korin is known for his particular skill in depicting nature and working with abstract color compositions. "Plum blossom red and white" is one of the most famous works Ogata Korina, his paintings "Chrysanthemums", "Waves of Matsushima" and a number of others are also known.
Hasegawa Tohaku (1539-1610)
Tohaku is the founder of the Japanese art school Hasegawa. For early period Tohaku's work is characterized by the influence of the famous school of Japanese painting 
Kano, but over time the artist formed his own unique style. In many ways, Tohaku's work was influenced by the work of the recognized master Sesshu, Hosegawa even considered himself the fifth successor of this great master. Hasegawa Tohaku's painting "Pines" received world fame, his works “Maple”, “Pines and flowering plants" and others.
Kano Eitoku (1543-1590)
The Kanō school style dominated the fine arts of Japan for about four centuries, and Kanō Eitoku is perhaps one of the most famous and prominent representatives this art school. Eitoku was favored by the authorities, the patronage of aristocrats and wealthy patrons could not but contribute to the strengthening of his school and the popularity of this work, no doubt, very talented artist. Eitoku Kano's 'Cypress' eight-panel sliding screen is a true masterpiece and a prime example of the scope and power of the Monoyama style. No less interesting are other works of the master, such as "Birds and Trees of the Four Seasons", "Chinese Lions", "Hermits and a Fairy" and many others.
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)
Hokusai - greatest master ukiyo-e (Japanese woodcut). The work of Hokusai received world recognition, his fame in other countries is not comparable with the popularity of most Asian artists, his work " A big wave in Kanagawa" became something like business card Japanese fine arts on the world art scene. On my own creative way Hokusai used more than thirty pseudonyms, after sixty the artist devoted himself entirely to art, and it is this time that is considered the most fruitful period of his work. Hokusai's work influenced the work of Western Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masters, including the work of Renoir, Monet and van Gogh.
