The work that is portrayed above is referred to as The Coiffure. The artist of this artwork is Mary Cassatt and was painted in 1890. The images that are shown are Japanese woodblock prints. These pictures were referred to as “scenes of the floating world”, and showed urban bourgeois pleasure. Urban bourgeois pleasures are defined as the depictions of Japanese women, sumo wrestlers, and the natural beauty surrounding present day Tokyo and Mount Fuji. The scene that is specifically shown in this artwork is a woman depicted as nude who seems to be sitting in a chair and fixing her hair. This painting is made of woodblock print, ink and color on paper. This being stated, the form of this artwork is that it is made out of color on paper, woodblock print and ink, and the content of this artwork is the depiction of a nude woman who is fixing her hair while sitting in a chair. This artwork functions to make the artworks during this time more accessible to the general public. There is also the deep influence by Japanese woodblock prints because of the way that the surroundings are painted. As said before, the main function for this artwork is so that there would be the increase availability of art towards the masses while also showing the remnants of Japanese culture influence. There are many parts to the historical and social context of this painting and the society during this time period. During this time period, the tradition that was held was that males would only drawn the female nude. This was broken in this example as Mary Cassatt, a female, depicts a female as nude, which was a breaking of tradition. This time period was also a time for increased contact and trade with the East. Europe was fascinated with the Japanese culture which can be seen in the depiction of post impressionistic artworks. This painting was shown in Paris, but the content of this artwork is correlated with Japanese culture, which shows the diffusion of the culture across coasts. There is also the similarity to Japanese prints, such as the watery brushstrokes and 2 dimensional depictions. That is the image’s historical and social context.
Khalid, Farisa. “Cassatt, The Coiffure.” Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/modernity-ap/a/cassatt-the-coiffure.
“121. The Coiffure, Mary Cassatt – AP Art History.” Google Sites, sites.google.com/site/adairarthistory/iv-later-europe-and-americas/121-the-coiffure-mary-cassatt.