[Art History] Dude Toulouse-Lautrec was a nerd

He was so obsessed with Japanese art that he tried to emulate it and even bought a kimono and tried to "look Asian"

Ahhh, Orientalism. It makes sense in context, but is still pretty cringe-worthy in how naively, ignorantly racist it was.

I mean, okay, Japan wasn't considered part of the Orient at the time, but the attitude toward them was the same.

I was more looking at it and thinking about how people are with anime or something like that. like yeah now a days this would have been seen as racist

Hugely! They had no ill will toward Japan, but they also saw the Japanese as interesting novelties that wore funny clothes.

fucking weeaboos across time

That said, that interest in Japan (which had just re-opened its borders to the rest of the world) did have a strong influence on European art.

I did my graphic design final on him and have a picture I did of that image but in his style

Toulouse was a funny guy