EXHIBITION
9/27
2003
1/27
2004

The Belle Epoque: Art around 1900: Selected works from the Collection.

2003.09.27 — 2004.01.27

Sep.27 (Sat), 2003 – Jan.27 (Tue), 2004

 

From the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, against a backdrop of scientific and technological advances and economic development, Paris saw the flowering of Art Nouveau and other vivacious forms of art. This era—an era when amid peace and prosperity, various art movements took place in and around Paris, the capital of art—is referred to as the Belle Epoque (Beautiful Age). The thirty or so years before the outbreak of World War I in 1914, it later came to be looked back on with nostalgia as a dream-like, golden past time for Europe. In this beautiful age, as symbolized by the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, industry and technology progressed dramatically, and people enjoyed the exuberant days of prosperity and pleasure.

 

The Pola Museum of Art houses a wide range of works of art, including European paintings, Japanese Western-style paintings, Japanese-style paintings, prints, sculptures, Oriental ceramics, glass works, and cosmetic utensils. Visitors enjoyed the art of the Belle Epoque—a time when Impressionism and various other art movements were occurring, a time when diverse activities in such arts as literature, music, and theater flourished, and a time when new fashions, together with perfumes and cosmetic utensils, made women more beautiful than ever before.