Christa Giles

The painter, Du Jardin continues, will strive to extract
the intimate reality, the essence of the object
he selects. Primitive art and folklore are
symbolic in this fashion . . . and so is Japanese
art. 481
183
In effect the image, the metaphor, or painting
functions to create moods or evoke ideas. This
consciousness of surface, pattern, or design was, as we
have noted, particularly evident in Wilde’s and Huysmans’
appreciation of Japanese art. They were influenced by
Edmond de Goncourt’s appreciation of Japanese artistry.
His books on Utamaro and Hosukai were popular in
artistic circles at the time and many artists such as
Beardsley, Whistler, Shannon, and Ricketts were collectors
of Japanese prints. Ricketts acknowledged his debt to
Edmond de Goncourt and encapsulated ideas current at the
period when he spoke of the Japanese artist Korin. He
particularly appreciated the sense of design of Korin, who
like all Japanese artists ˝reduced facts to symbols of their
qualities or aspects.˝ Ricketts also underlined the ˝pattern
making element in his work, which ignores the imitations
of fact, and at times sets a wholly arbitrary value on
experience.˝ 482