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Village Fountain, Lucca, Italy

You see it in Van Gogh’s work.  Toulouse-Lautrec, Monet and Whistler, among others, they incorporated it in their works, too.  In the mid-19th century, Japanese art was introduced to the Western Europe.  Many European artists then used Japanese design elements in their art.  Japonism helped them create works that were truly unconventional and exotic.

The Japanese influence was not just seen in paintings but it also spread to other forms of art.  Giacomo Puccini wrote "Madame Butterfly," one of the most popular operas today, inspired by a story about an American naval officer and a Japanese geisha girl who lived in Nagasaki, Japan in the 19th century.

Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy in 1858.  It is a lovely medieval town in Northern Tuscany.  His house is still there.  For 200 years until just before his birth, Japan was virtually isolated from the rest of the world because of its closed-door foreign policy.  When it ended, many things, including arts, were traded and exchanged across borders.  I can’t imagine the excitement people felt on both sides of the door!  The timing was just right for Puccini to create a masterpiece that reflected this historically dramatic event.

Lucca, by the way, is a great place to visit.  Walking is fun and easy as the streets are neatly laid out.  In one of the town’s many piazzas, I found a fountain that looked like a bath tub.  Soon, I also found it functioned like a watercooler for townspeople.  They came to collect water from there and chat.  Their centuries-old social networking system was alive and well -- although they love talking on the cell phone, too, nowadays.  If I could chat with Puccini by this fountain, I would most definitely ask what motivated him to write an opera based in a mysterious tiny island country in the Far East.

Click here to view more Italian landscape paintings.

Village Fountain, Lucca, Italy

Media: Original watercolor on paper

Image: 9.5 x 7.5 inches

Purchase: Sold