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A man painting (a photograph?)
von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz, 1881, Photograph
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A man painting (a photograph?)
A man painting (a photograph?)
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Location
Category
Library Item
Item no
15167
Title
A man painting (a photograph?)
Description
A man kneels on tatami mats whilst painting on a low table. He is wearing a kimono and has his hair arranged in the 'chonmage' style: the top of his head is shaven and the hair is tied back in a topknot.
Painting brushes and paints line the table. The man is holding a brush in his right hand and is painting a small picture that may be a photograph.
In front of the man is a tobacco tray and on his left is another one covered with blue and white teapot and cups. Behind him is a large painted screen; other photographs show that it has a total of six panels, each decorated with different figures surrounded by vegetation.
Artist / maker
von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz
Date
1881
Size
14 x 9.5 cm
Type
Photograph
Location
Art and Design Library
This item is part of a collection of prints from the studio of Baron Franz von Stillfried-Ratenicz, an Austrian photographer practising in Japan in the late 1870's. Von Stillfried ran a studio in Yokohama at the same time as his brother Raimund, who was also known as 'Baron Stillfried'. This caused a great deal of confusion with the local residents and visitors to Japan in the Meiji Period, and with art historians today.
This album, which dates from 1879-83, comprises 67 separate mounted prints presented in a lacquerware box. Albums of this kind were popular among foreign tourists, who frequently selected the individual prints they wished to include from the studio's collection. Many of these albumen prints were hand tinted. This was a laborious process for which von Stillfried employed, at the height of his success, a substantial number of Japanese workers. The man in this photograph may be one of them, busy tinting a photograph.
This picture is of particular interest as it demonstrates how the photographer used props to recreate a traditional Japanese interior. Props were often used by early photographers in Japan and Stillfried used those visible in this photograph several other times. For instance, the tea set on the left side of the painter looks similar to the one in the picture of a hairdresser and her subject (item no.
15129
). The room may also be the same.
The folding screen in the background is also a prop visible in the picture of a Shinto priest wearing rich garments (item no.
15125
). This type of six-panel screen called Rokkyobu Byobu or Rokumaiori Byobu was the most popular format available during this period. It measured about 1.5 metres high and 3.7 metres wide. Along with the two trays and the accessories on the painter's table, the screen is used to give the space an air of domestic authenticity. A Westerner visiting a traditional Japanese house would have encountered such objects.
The screen and the other props were placed with great care in order to create a balanced composition. Introducing these small still-lives added another interesting aspect to this kind of photograph that would be examined closely and thoroughly by the Western public.
Exhibitions with this item
Views and Costumes of China & Japan
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People
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Entertainment and sports
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Artists
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Asia
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Japan
Sport and leisure
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Activities
>
Painting
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