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Japanese art, one that began declining after Japan

was forced to open its doors to the West in the

1860s. Produced in great numbers between 1660 and

1860, and sold as popular souvenirs, they recorded

the pleasures of ukiyo, “the floating—or fleeting—

world” of courtesans, actors, and dancers (see Figure

31 .13) that enlivened the streets of bustling, urban

Edo (now Tokyo). Like the magnificent folding

screens commissioned by wealthy patrons (see chap-

ter 21), the prints feature flat, unmodulated colors,

undulating lines, and compositions that are cropped

or include large areas of empty space. Their daring

use of negative spaceand startling perspective were

often the consequence of unusual vantage points,

such as the bird’s-eye view seen in the prints of

Kunisada (Figure 31. 10 ). Such prints were mass-

produced, most often by men, despite Kunisada’s

rendering.

During the mid nineteenth century, Japanese

woodblock artists added landscapes to their reperto-

ry. The landscape prints, often produced as a series of

views of local Japanese sites, resemble the topograph-

ical studies of European artists. But they operated out

of entirely different stylistic imperatives: unlike the

Figure 31.8 EDGAR DEGAS, The False Start, ca. 1870. Oil on canvas, 12^5 ⁄ 8  153 ⁄ 4 in.

The English sport of horse racing took hold in France in the 1830s when a track was

built at Chantilly. In 1857, a fashionable racetrack was established at Longchamp in

the Bois de Boulogne on the outskirts of Paris.

Figure 31.9 EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE, Photo Sequence of Racehorse, 1884–1885.

Photograph.

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