Taishō Art Nouveau Style Kimono

A women's silk kimono with a peacock pattern.

• As European artists sought a new design vocabulary, they were drawn to Japanese woodblock prints that began appearing in Paris in the 1850s. By 1890, these influences had evolved into Art Nouveau. The stylistic synthesis of the textile design seen here reveals the cross-fertilization of European and Japanese ideas.
• Peacock feathers were a ubiquitous theme of the Art Nouveau Movement, which was greatly influenced by the arts of Japan.
• The peacock was a decorative motif in Japan well before this, but this kimono uses the pattern in a Western way, similar to the textile pictured by Arthur Silver made in England in 1887.

Modesto Art Museum, Modesto, California, March 19–April 27, 2014

“Modern Design, Traditional Forms,” Tanabe Gallery, Portland, Oregon, December 2019-January 2020