Japonisme in Britain by Ayako Ono

Author:Ayako Ono [Ono, Ayako]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Art, General, History, European, Asian, Europe, Great Britain, Technology & Engineering, Industrial Design
ISBN: 9780415405843
Google: mT7z5rJV6AgC
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2003-05-23T16:00:30+00:00

Figure 4.16 E.A. Hornel, The Lotus Flower, 1894. Oil, 76.2X48.3 cm. © The Hornel Library, The National Trust for Scotland, Broughton House, Kirkcudbright. Photograph Courtesy of Sotheby’s.

Yuichi’s Oiran reveals his painstaking effort to depict the details of the kimono and hair ornaments. Distinct, strong colours are juxtaposed and this has an effect of flatness. The realistic expression of the oiran‘s face, hollow cheeks, big mouth and loose hair, is far from an ideal ukiyo-e beauty, whose stylised figure is slim, and whose small white face had a small mouth. The oiran’s head looks as if it is weighted down with the heavy costume. Because of the awkward technique, all these elements create an indescribable impression far from the ideals of Japanese art and beauty.

What is interesting about Yuichi’s Oiran is that an oil painting is used to record or document a figure of the day.80 The Japanese seem to have found western painting ‘realistic’, like a photograph, but thought that oil painting, by virtue of its durability, was superior to photography. It is, therefore, a curious irony that 20 years after a Japanese patron had preferred a western-style oil painting to record the oiran, Hornel should be using a photograph of an oiran as the basis for his oil painting.

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