Japan and the West: Week 9 - Exchanges and influences in Fine Art (mainly painting in Meiji/Taisho)

1. 1 / 54
Website
bit.ly/japanwest

2. 2 / 54
Japan and the West: 9
Fine Arts

3. 3 / 54
'Western' Art?

4. 4 / 54
Japanese Art?

5. 5 / 54
?

6. 6 / 54
Shiba Kokan (1747-1818)

Worked mainly in Edo

Translated and wrote
works on astronomy

Produced maps
This portrait by Takahashi Yuichi.

7. 7 / 54
地球全図略説 Chikyu Zenzu Ryakusetsu

1793

8. 8 / 54
“Asukayama“ c.1800

9. 9 / 54
Landscape painting
Tenshō Shūbun 天章周文 mid-c15
Landscape of the Four Seasons

10. 10 / 54
East(s) meets West
A meeting of China,
Japan and the West
Late c.18
Shiba Kokan

11. 11 / 54
Materials and techniques

How and where you can make pictures depends
(partly) on the materials you have to work with…
− Ink, paper, silk brushes
− Oil-paints, canvas, stiff brushes

12. 12 / 54
Materials and techniques

How and where you can make pictures depends
(partly) on the materials you have to work with…
− Ink, paper, silk brushes
require a flat surface, wind is a problem!
− Oil-paints, canvas, stiff brushes
after mid c19 (paint in tubes!), development of
box easel, painting en plein air (outside)
becomes easier (natural light!)

13. 13 / 54
Artists at work...

14. 14 / 54
Seeing & showing reality
Christ entering Jerusalem
Lorenzetti, 1320

15. 15 / 54
Seeing & showing reality
Death of the Historical
Buddha (Nehan), Kamakura
period (1185–1333), 14th
century

16. 16 / 54
Perspective!

17. 17 / 54
Perspective!
Paolo Uccello: The Battle of San Romano, 1438-40

18. 18 / 54
Symbolic space
Nanban Ships c16.

19. 19 / 54
Practical 'art'

蛮 ( 蕃 ) 書調所 (1855 onwards)

“Tokugawa Institute for Barbarian Learning”

“The need to prepare fortifications against
foreign invasion brought the government to
employ artists to sketch sites and trajectories.
[TIBL] included instruction in painting as a
utilitarian discipline, related to map-making
and descriptive drawing”
Jansen, M. B. (2002). The making of modern Japan. Harvard University Press. p476-8

20. 20 / 54
K bu Daigakkoō (Technical College)

Founded 1871 by Yamao Yōzō after a 7-year stay
overseas. Aided by Henry Dyer.

1878 technical art school founded:
− Antonio Fontanesi – painting
− Vincenzo Ragusa – sculpture
− Giovanni Cappellati – architecture

Teachers and students influenced much western-
style art & architecture during early Meiji period.

21. 21 / 54
K bu Daigakkoō (Technical College)

Founded 1871 by Yamao Yōzō after a 7-year stay
overseas. Aided by Henry Dyer.

1878 technical art school founded:
− Antonio Fontanesi – painting
− Vincenzo Ragusa – sculpture
− Giovanni Cappellati – architecture

Teachers and students influenced much western-
style art & architecture during early Meiji period.

22. 22 / 54
After 1850s...

Increased exchanges of many sorts between Japan
and 'the West' (US and Europe mainly)

Increasing awareness of 'national identity' in Japan

Increased awareness of differences between Japan
and the 'the West' also, necessity of distinguishing
between the two

Nihon-ga ↔ Yō-ga 日本画 ↔ 洋画

23. 23 / 54
New Schools & Trends

'Western-style' oil-painting quickly became popular

Japanese artists began to travel abroad to study,
European artists came to Japan to teach

Followed by a reaction in support of native artistic
styles
− Formation of Ryuchi-kai in 1879, support from
Fenollosa etc.
− Creation of terms Yō-ga and Nihon-ga

24. 24 / 54
New Schools & Trends

Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908)
1882: Five features of Nihon-ga
1. Does not try to photographic veracity 写真のような写実を追わない。
2. No use of chiaroscuro (no shadows) 陰影が無い。
3. Outlines 鉤勒（こうろく、輪郭線）がある。
4. Flat colours 色調が濃厚でない。
5. Concise expression 表現が簡潔である。

25. 25 / 54
Early Meiji Y -gaō

Kawakami Togai
(1827-81)

1870: Landscape 風景

Studied western art from
books of Dutch painting

Had to make his own
brushes and 'canvas'
from paper and cloth

Suicide after accusation
of selling maps

26. 26 / 54
Early Meiji Y -gaō

Takahashi Yuichi
c1877: Salmon 鮭

Trained with Charles
Wirgman (Briton working
for Illustrated London
News)

Advocated establishment
of Japan's first 'art
museum'

27. 27 / 54
The end of “Early Meiji”
Asai Chū
Spring Furrows
1888

28. 28 / 54
Meanwhile, in Europe...
View from the Window at Le Gras (1826 or 1827), Nicéphore Niépce

29. 29 / 54
Daguerreotype
c1850
Edgar Allan Poe, 1870

30. 30 / 54
Japan Exported

31. 31 / 54
Japan Exported
Paris: “La Porte Chinoise”
1863: E. de Soye, returning
from Japan, opened a shop with
his wife at 220 rue de Rivoli
dealing in Oriental commodities.

32. 32 / 54
James McNeill Whistler

33. 33 / 54
La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine

34. 34 / 54
Variations in Flesh
Colour and Green
—The Balcony
1864-79
J.A.M. Whistler

35. 35 / 54
Japonisme!
Jeunes femmes
regardant des
objects japonais
1869
James Tissot

36. 36 / 54
Portrait of
Emile Zola
1868
Edouard Manet

37. 37 / 54
Degas
Edgar Degas, 1879, Two Ballet Dancers

38. 38 / 54
1890s
Fontanesi
browns / yani

39. 39 / 54
1890s
Kuroda Seiki
purples /
murasaki

40. 40 / 54
1894: Kamo River
Kume
Keiichiro

41. 41 / 54

42. 42 / 54
What was exchanged?

Subject matter

Composition

Materials/Techniques

43. 43 / 54
Subject Matter

What are 'appropriate' or 'correct'
subject for art?

Everyday life ('realism'?)

'Nature'

44. 44 / 54
Composition

Different aesthetics regarding
arrangments in space

Japanese and 'western' ideas of
balance

45. 45 / 54
Materials/Techniques

Oil paints (variety of colour/depth)

Canvas / paper

Woodblock prints
− Use of black outline
− Areas of flat colour
− Chiaroscuro

46. 46 / 54
Vincent van Gogh
Portraits of Pere (Julien) Tanguy, 1886-7

47. 47 / 54
Plum Trees
Hiroshige, 1857 – van Gogh, 1887

48. 48 / 54
Mary Cassat (1844-1926)
Woman Bathing, 1890-1
Tea, 1880

49. 49 / 54
Henri Riviere
Thirty-Six Views of the Eiffel Tower, 1902.
Influenced by Hiroshige, Hokusai.

50. 50 / 54
Pablo Picasso
Portrait of the Art Dealer Pedro Manach
1901

51. 51 / 54
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
1864-1901

52. 52 / 54
Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968)
Café, 1949

53. 53 / 54
アッツ島玉砕 Death on Attu, 1943

54. 54 / 54
Next week...
Performing Arts