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Lot 130 |Property from the family of Claude Monet
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
Closed26 November 2017
Price Realised
HKD 562,500
More Information
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
The monkey bridge in Kai Province (Koyo Saruhashi no zu)
Signed Hiroshige hitsu, published by Tsutaya Kichizo, circa 1842
Vertical diptych : 72 x 24.2 cm.
The monkey bridge in Kai Province (Koyo Saruhashi no zu)
Signed Hiroshige hitsu, published by Tsutaya Kichizo, circa 1842
Vertical diptych : 72 x 24.2 cm.
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
The monkey bridge in Kai Province (Koyo Saruhashi no zu)
Signed Hiroshige hitsu, published by Tsutaya Kichizo, circa 1842
Vertical diptych : 72 x 24.2 cm.
The monkey bridge in Kai Province (Koyo Saruhashi no zu)
Signed Hiroshige hitsu, published by Tsutaya Kichizo, circa 1842
Vertical diptych : 72 x 24.2 cm.
Claude Monet, Giverny.
Michel Monet, Giverny (by descent from the above).
Rolande Verneiges, France (gift from the above).
By descent from the above to the present owner.
Michel Monet, Giverny (by descent from the above).
Rolande Verneiges, France (gift from the above).
By descent from the above to the present owner.
" I was flattered by your two letters, with the deepest admiration for Japanese art and a real appreciation for the Japanese. It gave me the greatest pleasure to receive your beautiful engravings."
C. Monet quoted in a letter to S. Yamashuita, Giverny, 19 February 1920.
"I had the good fortune to discover a batch of prints at a Dutch merchant's. It was in Amsterdam in a shop of Delft porcelain." Monet was haggling over an object without any success. (…) Suddenly I saw a dish filled with images below on a shelf. I stepped forward: Japanese woodblocks!"
M. Elder quoting C. Monet in 1871.
When questioned by his biographers, Gustave Geffroy and Jean- Pierre Hoschedé, Monet claimed that he first discovered Japanese woodblock prints during a stay in Zaandam in Holland in 1871. However, just two years before his death, the artist told Marc Elder that he had purchased his first print in Le Havre in 1856, at sixteen years old. The veracity of this second statement is doubtful, as the first commercial trade treaty between France and Japan was only signed on October 9th, 1858, shortly after the country formally ended their policy of isolationism, known as Sakoku. The first prints to make their way to Europe most likely came from the bustling port of Yokohama, which became the official base for foreign trade following the opening of the country in 1859. Works of Hokusai, Hiroshige and later Utamaro, were known only to a small circle of amateurs and enthusiasts in the early 1860s. The art critic Ernest Chesneau confirms the original version of the painter’s story by tracing the first emergence of Japanese motifs in the artist’s work to the painting Méditation. Madame Monet au canapé from 1871. Now housed at the Musée d’Orsay, the painting contains echoes of the a-symmetrical compositions of Ukiyo-e prints, while the presence of a fan and porcelain vase on the mantelpiece in the background offer a direct nod to the contemporary enthusiasm for Japanese objects that was sweeping the nation.
The term Japonisme was coined in the 1870s to describe the apparently ever-increasing popularity of Japanese artworks and decorative items in French society. Parisians saw their first formal exhibition of Japanese arts and crafts when the country took a pavilion at the Exposition Universelle of 1867, held in the heart of the French capital. Among the forty-two nations represented at the Fair, it was the Japanese pavilion which captured the imagination of visitors, driving interest in all things Japanese to a new high. Prior to this event, a small group of specialists had been gathering as much knowledge on the subject of Japanese art and culture as they could, collecting examples of textiles, lacquerware, Ukiyo-e prints, and porcelain as they arrived on boats. These included Charles Baudelaire, Philippe Burty, Émile Zola and Goncourt, travellers like Theodore Duret and Emile Guimet, jewellers like Henri Vever, and the engravers and the painters Felix Bracquemond, Carolus Durand, Edgar Degas, Fantin-Latour, Charles Gillot, Edouard Manet, Henri Manzi, Henri Tissot and Claude Monet.
Monet, then settled in the countryside, followed developments in Paris closely, as a letter addressed to Paul Durand- Ruel can testify: “The opening of the Japanese fair is not Tuesday, but tomorrow Monday. I will then come tomorrow”. Here, Monet was referring to a retrospective organized by Louis Gonse, in 1883, at the gallery Georges Petit, which included over three thousand paintings and prints, the majority of which were loaned to the exhibition from private collections in Paris. As well as these large retrospectives, smaller exhibitions were subsequently organized showcasing individual artists such as Utamaro and Hiroshige, including several at the Durand-Ruel gallery, which fascinated both Monet and his close friend Pissarro. The latter confided to his son Lucien: “Admirable, the Japanese exhibition.
Hiroshige is a marvellous impressionist. Me, Monet and Rodin are filled with enthusiasm (...) these Japanese artists confirm to me our visual position”. (C. Pissarro quoted in P. H. Tucker, Claude Monet: Life and Art, New Haven and London, 1995, p. 141). Monet may have purchased engravings by Utamaro and Hiroshige on the occasion of these exhibitions.
Monet continued to add to his collection throughout his lifetime, and by the time of his death in 1926, he had accumulated 231 prints by a variety of different Japanese artists. While he had a preference for the Masters of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as Hokusai and Horishige, it was an eclectic collection, featuring 36 different artists.
Although Monet never slavishly recopied Japanese engravings, he carefully analysed the compositional qualities of the prints to give a new impetus to his own painting.
For example, Hokusai’s concentration on the isolated forms of different Japanese flowers, along with the structure of Utagawa Hiroshige’s The monkey bridge in Kai Province (lot 130) may have inspired Monet to turn his attention to the water lilies which floated in elegant gardens at Giverny.
Monet’s collection also included several Japanese prints in which young women are observed going about their daily occupations, unaware of the artist’s gaze. The Chokosai Eisho print, Hanagi of the Ogiya on an Outing (lot 135), for example, may have influenced Monet’s depiction of his wife Camille in La Japonaise (Madame Monet en Costume Japonais). Posing in an elaborate kimono against a background filled with a variety of colorful fans, Camille’s natural features - her blonde hair and incredibly white skin - emphasize the fact that she is a westerner playing dress up, a typically fashionable Parisian, fascinated by the exotic lure of the mysterious geishas.
Beyond their representation of the Japanese way of life, Monet was also greatly influenced by the manner in which the natural world held such a central place within the imagination of these artists. The winter scenes that populate Horishige’s oeuvre were of particular fascination to Monet, from the iconic cycle of views detailing The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido, to his Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces series (lot 131). These images were of such importance to Monet that the echoes of their influence can be detected across a large number of the artist’s winter scenes. Often depicting the full cycle of a winter snowfall, from the first flurries of soft white powder which transform the landscape into an otherworldly wonderland, to the dramatic moments in which the layers of ice and snow begin to melt and disappear, Monet’s compositions revel in the play of diffused, cold winter sunlight and its reflection on the snow. In this approach, there are obvious affinities between the great cycles of Japanese prints and Monet’s passion for working in series. Although prints from Views of Famous Places in Edo (lot 132) and Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido Road (lot 131) typically deal with different geographical locations, Monet may have been inspired by their sense of progression when viewed as a complete set, leading him to develop his own paintings with the intention of them being exhibited together and seen as an interconnected group of independent images.
C. Monet quoted in a letter to S. Yamashuita, Giverny, 19 February 1920.
"I had the good fortune to discover a batch of prints at a Dutch merchant's. It was in Amsterdam in a shop of Delft porcelain." Monet was haggling over an object without any success. (…) Suddenly I saw a dish filled with images below on a shelf. I stepped forward: Japanese woodblocks!"
M. Elder quoting C. Monet in 1871.
When questioned by his biographers, Gustave Geffroy and Jean- Pierre Hoschedé, Monet claimed that he first discovered Japanese woodblock prints during a stay in Zaandam in Holland in 1871. However, just two years before his death, the artist told Marc Elder that he had purchased his first print in Le Havre in 1856, at sixteen years old. The veracity of this second statement is doubtful, as the first commercial trade treaty between France and Japan was only signed on October 9th, 1858, shortly after the country formally ended their policy of isolationism, known as Sakoku. The first prints to make their way to Europe most likely came from the bustling port of Yokohama, which became the official base for foreign trade following the opening of the country in 1859. Works of Hokusai, Hiroshige and later Utamaro, were known only to a small circle of amateurs and enthusiasts in the early 1860s. The art critic Ernest Chesneau confirms the original version of the painter’s story by tracing the first emergence of Japanese motifs in the artist’s work to the painting Méditation. Madame Monet au canapé from 1871. Now housed at the Musée d’Orsay, the painting contains echoes of the a-symmetrical compositions of Ukiyo-e prints, while the presence of a fan and porcelain vase on the mantelpiece in the background offer a direct nod to the contemporary enthusiasm for Japanese objects that was sweeping the nation.
The term Japonisme was coined in the 1870s to describe the apparently ever-increasing popularity of Japanese artworks and decorative items in French society. Parisians saw their first formal exhibition of Japanese arts and crafts when the country took a pavilion at the Exposition Universelle of 1867, held in the heart of the French capital. Among the forty-two nations represented at the Fair, it was the Japanese pavilion which captured the imagination of visitors, driving interest in all things Japanese to a new high. Prior to this event, a small group of specialists had been gathering as much knowledge on the subject of Japanese art and culture as they could, collecting examples of textiles, lacquerware, Ukiyo-e prints, and porcelain as they arrived on boats. These included Charles Baudelaire, Philippe Burty, Émile Zola and Goncourt, travellers like Theodore Duret and Emile Guimet, jewellers like Henri Vever, and the engravers and the painters Felix Bracquemond, Carolus Durand, Edgar Degas, Fantin-Latour, Charles Gillot, Edouard Manet, Henri Manzi, Henri Tissot and Claude Monet.
Monet, then settled in the countryside, followed developments in Paris closely, as a letter addressed to Paul Durand- Ruel can testify: “The opening of the Japanese fair is not Tuesday, but tomorrow Monday. I will then come tomorrow”. Here, Monet was referring to a retrospective organized by Louis Gonse, in 1883, at the gallery Georges Petit, which included over three thousand paintings and prints, the majority of which were loaned to the exhibition from private collections in Paris. As well as these large retrospectives, smaller exhibitions were subsequently organized showcasing individual artists such as Utamaro and Hiroshige, including several at the Durand-Ruel gallery, which fascinated both Monet and his close friend Pissarro. The latter confided to his son Lucien: “Admirable, the Japanese exhibition.
Hiroshige is a marvellous impressionist. Me, Monet and Rodin are filled with enthusiasm (...) these Japanese artists confirm to me our visual position”. (C. Pissarro quoted in P. H. Tucker, Claude Monet: Life and Art, New Haven and London, 1995, p. 141). Monet may have purchased engravings by Utamaro and Hiroshige on the occasion of these exhibitions.
Monet continued to add to his collection throughout his lifetime, and by the time of his death in 1926, he had accumulated 231 prints by a variety of different Japanese artists. While he had a preference for the Masters of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as Hokusai and Horishige, it was an eclectic collection, featuring 36 different artists.
Although Monet never slavishly recopied Japanese engravings, he carefully analysed the compositional qualities of the prints to give a new impetus to his own painting.
For example, Hokusai’s concentration on the isolated forms of different Japanese flowers, along with the structure of Utagawa Hiroshige’s The monkey bridge in Kai Province (lot 130) may have inspired Monet to turn his attention to the water lilies which floated in elegant gardens at Giverny.
Monet’s collection also included several Japanese prints in which young women are observed going about their daily occupations, unaware of the artist’s gaze. The Chokosai Eisho print, Hanagi of the Ogiya on an Outing (lot 135), for example, may have influenced Monet’s depiction of his wife Camille in La Japonaise (Madame Monet en Costume Japonais). Posing in an elaborate kimono against a background filled with a variety of colorful fans, Camille’s natural features - her blonde hair and incredibly white skin - emphasize the fact that she is a westerner playing dress up, a typically fashionable Parisian, fascinated by the exotic lure of the mysterious geishas.
Beyond their representation of the Japanese way of life, Monet was also greatly influenced by the manner in which the natural world held such a central place within the imagination of these artists. The winter scenes that populate Horishige’s oeuvre were of particular fascination to Monet, from the iconic cycle of views detailing The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido, to his Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces series (lot 131). These images were of such importance to Monet that the echoes of their influence can be detected across a large number of the artist’s winter scenes. Often depicting the full cycle of a winter snowfall, from the first flurries of soft white powder which transform the landscape into an otherworldly wonderland, to the dramatic moments in which the layers of ice and snow begin to melt and disappear, Monet’s compositions revel in the play of diffused, cold winter sunlight and its reflection on the snow. In this approach, there are obvious affinities between the great cycles of Japanese prints and Monet’s passion for working in series. Although prints from Views of Famous Places in Edo (lot 132) and Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido Road (lot 131) typically deal with different geographical locations, Monet may have been inspired by their sense of progression when viewed as a complete set, leading him to develop his own paintings with the intention of them being exhibited together and seen as an interconnected group of independent images.