Nagasaki--Jo Girin.

Estimate

20,000 - 30,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Panoramic view of Nagasaki Harbour. [Nagasaki, c.1810]
paper

Ink and water-colour on paper by Jo Girin, 437 x 746mm., signed by the artist in the bottom right hand corner, together with two unidentified seals, mounted, framed and glazed, minor waterstaining and browning

Provenance

C.R. Boxer; Phillips, sale 31044, lot 380

Catalogue Note

"The harbour of Nagasaki is one of the most beautiful in the world, but even its natural picturesqueness must often have been enhanced during the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries by the sight of the Dutch, Chinese and native Japanese shipping which frequented the haven. In particular the colourful spectacle of some gaily-beflagged Dutch East-Indiaman being towed to her berth off Deshima by a multitude of Japanese rowing boats, half obscured in the drifting smoke from the thunder of her saluting-guns, must have been one calculated strongly to appeal to the artistic sensibilities of the inhabitants of Nagasaki." (Boxer: Jan Compagnie in Japan, p. 116).

The technique used in this painting is called doro-e in Japan (literally mud-pictures), because they were painted with muddy watercolour paints mixed with ground clam shell (gofun). A further example of Jo Girin's work can be found in the Kobe City Museum (c.f. Nagasaki City Council: Deshima; Its Pictorial Heritage. Nagasaki, 1987 no. 25) as well as in Mody: Nagasaki Colour Prints and Paintings, 1939, vol. 2, plate 164).

This painting hung over the fire-place in Boxer's drawing room.