Untitled [Studies of Japan]

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Images(54)

Artist/Maker Unknown artist

Datec. 1877

MediumAlbum with laquered board cover containing fifty albumen photographs with hand coloring

DimensionsOverall (closed): 10 11/16 × 13 5/8 × 2 1/8 in. (27.1 × 34.6 × 5.4 cm) Image (each): 8 1/16 × 10 7/16 in. (20.5 × 26.5 cm) Sheet (each): 8 1/16 × 10 7/16 in. (20.5 × 26.5 cm)

Credit LinePurchase

Object number1992.27

Not on view

DescriptionAfter the arrival of the first camera in Japan in the 1840s, the field of photography began to thrive commercially. In the same period, the shogunate eased travel restrictions, and Japan became an exotic destination for Europeans and Americans, inspiring a wave of “Japonism,” or fervor for all things Japanese. This album, which contains fifty hand-colored photographs, was most likely produced and sold as a souvenir for tourists, given the anachronism of its portrayal of Japan as rustic and feudal. Photographs in the album depict a variety of subjects, such as laborers in rice paddies, teahouses, geishas, a Buddhist temple, and pleasant scenery in Nikkō and Kamakura. In fact, during the Meiji era of imperial rule, which began in 1868, a decade before the album was produced, modernizations such as gas lighting, railroads, and industrial production were introduced into the country. Japanese tourist photography was known as Yokohama shashin on account of the number of celebrated photographers working in the port city of Yokohama (shashin combines the ideograms for “reflect” and “truth”). The maker or makers of the images in this album are unknown. Typically, photography studios produced albums from a selection of images shot by multiple photographers in their employ, who were rarely credited. Prior to the invention of color photography, watercolor was applied to black-and-white photographs to make them appear more realistic and more similar to color woodblock prints, as seen here. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017) A volume of hand colored photographs of Japanese country life bound in laquered book boards. Cover is dark brown with flowered background and shows three open fans, two closed fans, and one partially open.

Collections

Additional Details

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 51, illus.);

2011
Clinton, NY (Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). "Learning to Look: Hamilton's Cabinets, Galleries and Museums Past, Present and Future," September 15 - December 16, 2011 (no cat.);

2004-2005
Clinton, NY (Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). "Inside the Floating World: Japanese Prints from the Lenoir Wright Collection", September 23, 2004 - January 2, 2005 (no cat.);

2001
Pittsford, NY (Nazareth College), Feb - April 2001.

Provenance 1992: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Gallery), by purchase from auction, Swann Auction Galleries, New York.

Markings Label: white adhesive label with "0215" marked in typeset on front cover at lower right.

Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 132.

Inscribed "64 [encircled]" on first page at lower center in pencil; "[illegible]" on first page at lower right in pencil.