Bonnard was certainly not the only artist of the late nineteenth century to be influenced by Japanese woodblock prints. The Japonisme movement swept through Paris and the rest of the art world with the opening of Japan for trade. Tissot, Degas, Van Gogh, Whistler, Pissaro, and Cassatt were among the many artists who drew inspiration from Japanese prints. Aside from borrowing compositional techniques, as Bonnard did, western artists became more devoted to printmaking.
Le Coiffure by Mary Cassatt (1883) is a fine example of Japanese-inspired Western printmaking. Cassatt, like many other Western artists, had bought many Japanese prints for her home. She was particularly impressed by the works of Utamaro, whose influence can be seen not only in Cassatt’s use of the woodblock print medium and emphasis on two-dimensional design but also in her depiction of a woman at her toilette, a subject typical of Utamaro’s prints (Cate). She even has given her subject a Japanese hairstyle. However, Cassatt’s print differs from those of Utamaro in her desensualization of the female nude. Many of Utamaro’s prints were quite risqué, in fact, practically pornographic. Cassatt’s nude is hunched over in an unflattering manner, and her body is shown only by thin outlines with very little detail.