Bigot is known in Japan for his albums of satirical drawings and his humorous periodicals. His copperplate engravings and his paintings in oil, watercolour and gouache remain largely unknown, although his engravings are beginning to be appreciated by a few connoisseurs. The various exhibitions which have been held in Japan and France since the 1980s have perhaps put too much emphasis on his work as a caricaturist. His engravings deserve to be in an exhibition devoted to them alone.

From the time of his arrival in Japan Bigot found and observed the Japan of his dreams. At this stage he was only interested in traditional Japan which he vividly depicted in his drawings, watercolours, oils, gouaches and copperplate engravings. This was the Japan which he hoped would last for ever.

Of the five volumes of copperplate engraving which Bigot produced between 1883 and 1889, namely Asa (1883),O-ha-yo (end of 1883), Ma-ta (1884), Croquis Japonais (1886) and Le Japon (1889) only the engravings in Asa, the first volume, in O-ha-yo and in Croquis Japonais, the most well-known album, are reproduced in full here, although not necessarily in the order as originally published, and excluding images duplicated in other albums. In addition, a selection from the twelve copperplate engravings from the Georges Bigot collection are included. Bigot had brought the plates for these back from Japan and as they were the only ones discovered at his house in Bièvres, they were perhaps his favourites. At our request, Rafael Loison reprinted them on his press at his studio in the Rue Mouffetard in Paris.

Bigot concentrated on portraying Japanese women and men as he saw them on the streets or country roads in Japan, such as a Japanese family in a carriage, pilgrims on their way to the temple at Narita, a butcher, a newspaper-seller, or Japanese women serving tea inside their homes, etc. Each engraving depicted an individual dressed in the usual clothes of his trade or occupation.

His watercolours, sketches, drawings, gouaches, pastels and oil paintings on canvas or wood depicted the Japanese landscape and nature as he saw it, with Mt. Fuji often appearing in the background. He painted many pictures of peasants working in the paddy fields, as well as of street scenes and shop fronts and of people at tourist spots such as of geisha beside the Kamogawa river in Kyoto.