The Blue Kimono 

William Merritt Chase painted this oil on canvas, called *The Blue Kimono,* during the late 19th century when Japanese aesthetics shaped Western art. Chase belonged to a circle of American artists who collected Japanese objects and depicted them in their paintings. The “Japonisme” craze involved the display of Japanese art and artifacts in international expositions, museums, and private homes. The institutions of art played a major role in ascribing value to Japanese imports by displaying them as “art.” The craze for Japanese art coincided with a period of rapid industrialization in the West and a desire to find spiritual value in pre-industrial cultures. Was Chase trying to critique the rapid industrialization of his own time by idealizing the Japanese kimono? To better understand this painting, we can research the impact of Japonisme in America by studying exhibition catalogs, art criticism, and biographies of collectors and artists.