Claude Monet
La Japonaise
1876
Painted by Claude Monet in 1876, 'La Japonaise' is a more than two-metre-high portrait of his wife Camille in a red kimono, smiling theatrically and holding a red folding fan. Capitalising on the Japonisme craze sweeping Paris, Monet turned his studio into a stage: dozens of Japanese uchiwa fans cover the wall behind her, a tatami-patterned floor spreads beneath her feet, and Camille wears a blond wig and stage-bright colours to perform an 'Oriental' woman. Exhibited at the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876, the painting was a sensation Monet later distanced himself from as a pot-boiler, but it remains one of the most striking works in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Exhibition Venue
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Image source: Wikimedia Commons