Mount Fuji - pays de neige, Musee Guimet

If you live in the Northeast in the USA you woke up to 12-20 inches of snow this morning. Paris was a balmy 54 degrees. Coats and windows were open. 

A good time to show you an exhibit at Musee Guimet - Mont Fuji - land of snow. 

Japanese woodblock prints of the Edo period (1603 - 1868). They capture the infinite silence of snow gently falling. 

Here’s a very ‘Japanese’ snow scene from New York photographer, Noam Galai, taken yesterday of a Sabret hot dog stand.

Around 1830, 70-year-old Hokusai became obsessed with snow-covered Mount Fuji, as a symbol of monumentality. 

The titles of his prints are like haiku poems; 

‘Fine winds, Clear morning’ 

‘Rainstorm beneath the summit’ 

‘New paddies at Ono’

The introduction of Prussian blue pigment , a deep greeny-blue stain brought in by  Commadore Perry when he ‘opened’ Japan,

                  Added depth and  contrast to Edo prints. 

Check out Lise Martinot’s Youtube lecture(in French) on their influence.

In Musee Guimet’s terrific gift shop I bought an accordion book of bird prints now gracing my wall, most with Prussian blue backgrounds. By the way they have Hokusai ‘Great Wave’ socks and face masks. 

Claude Monet, like Impressionists Manet and Van Gogh, obsessively collected 250 Japanese prints for inspiration. They graced the walls of his famous yellow dining room at Giverny. 

Yesterday morning, the sky out my window was pale Prussian blue. Keep warm PBers🐻🎨❤️