[1] During the Kaei era (1848–1854), after more than 200 years of seclusion, foreign merchant ships of various nationalities began to visit Japan.

Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan ended a long period of national isolation and became open to imports from the West, including photography and printing techniques.

With this new opening in trade, Japanese art and artifacts began to appear in small curiosity shops in Paris and London.

La parisienne japonaise shows a sophisticated woman in an elegantly decorated blue kimono, with a fan in her right hand, standing in front of a mirror in which she looks at herself somewhat absentmindedly.

The background is relatively empty, and a folding screen behind the young woman prevents from further inquiring into her whereabouts, so that the attention automatically returns to the model and her colorful, exotic dress.