Reflections of Japan at the turn of modernity. Ukiyo-e and Shin hanga prints from the Paul Tavernier legacy
Exhibition at the Cernuschi Museum, guided tour by Justine Claude, curator of the exhibition.
The Cernuschi Museum honors the great patrons who have worked to enrich its collections by presenting to the public part of the collection of Jean and Yvonne Tavernier. This couple, who lived in Shanghai from 1937 to 1946 while Jean Tavernier taught at the Lycée Français, built up a rich collection of Asian graphic arts. In 2017, their son Paul Tavernier bequeathed all the Chinese paintings to the Cernuschi Museum, before doing the same with the Japanese prints last year. Some of them are revealed to visitors during the exhibition. Reflections of Japan at the turn of modernity.
The first room of the exhibition is devoted to the art of'Ukiyo-e, which is translated as “images of the floating world”. The emergence of this graphic art, which appeared during the Edo era (1603-1868), corresponds to a major period in Japan, marked by the movement of the capital to Edo, present-day Tokyo, and by the establishment of power of the Tokugawa shogunate. A period of relative peace followed, marked by a certain economic prosperity and the development of the arts. It is in this favorable context that a bourgeois class emerges (chōnin), made up of merchants and artisans at the origin of the diffusion of Ukiyo-e. The prints produced will thus reflect the sophisticated lifestyle of this new social class, their “floating world” (ukiyō), where admiration of nature and pleasures of the arts (theater, poetry, music) combine. These images are produced in large numbers using the wood engraving technique, which involves different trades: the artist who is at the origin of the drawing, the engraver who reproduces it on the plates, the printer and the editor who coordinates the work.
The collection of Yvonne and Jean Tavernier highlights two great artists of the Utagawa School at the beginning of the 19rd century, Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865) and Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861).
The first, Utagawa Kunisada, is a major figure of this movement. He likes to illustrate the refinement of the popular culture of the capital Edo, sometimes in a parodic manner. Beyond his prints of beautiful Japanese women (beat him), the representation of theatrical scenes and actors also testifies to the influence exerted by the theater kabuki from an early age. Among the prints presented is Snow in the garden (1859). This triptych is the result of the collaboration between Kunisada, author of the human figures, and Utagawa Hiroshige II (1797–1858), who created the landscape.
 Utagawa Kunisada and Utagawa Hiroshige II. “Snow in the Garden” from the Genji with Two Brushes series. 1859. Polychrome woodcut. |
 Utagawa Kuniyoshi. “Graffiti on the wall of a department store.” 1847-48. Polychrome woodcut. |
The second, Utagawa Kuniyoshi – both rival and collaborator of Kunisada – is one of the founding members of the Utagawa School. Author of prints representing landscapes, beautiful women or portraits of actors, he is also famous for his traditional figures of warriors (musha-e). The representation of caricatures of kabuki actors in Graffiti on the wall of a department store (1847-1848) testifies to the particular political context of the Tenp eraō (1841-1843). While the latter is marked by the ban on representations of living kabuki actors, the artist manages to circumvent this rule by including in his work words and iconographic symbols identifying certain actors. Furthermore, with its Parody of the Six Geniuses of Poetry (1863), Kunisada delights in transforming a traditional subject of the Heian period (794-1185) by depicting the six immortal poets as kabuki actors, attesting to the popularity of the parody genre during the era of Edo.
The second room, for its part, highlights a whole series of works illustrating the movement of Shin hanga (new print), including, in particular, prints signed by the hand of Ohara Koson (1877-1945) and Kawase Hasui (1883-1957).
 Utagawa Kunisada. “Parody of the Six Geniuses of Poetry” (detail). 1863. Polychrome woodcut. |
 Ohara Koson. “Two birds on a wisteria branch”. (between 1926 and 1945. Polychrome woodcut. |
While the Meiji era (1868-1912), characterized by the opening of Japan towards the West, corresponds to a certain decline in the art of Japanese prints – weakened by the appearance of lithography and photography -, the movement of Shin hanga marks a turning point in the production of prints in the first half of the 20rd century. Influenced by Western art, it is characterized by the large-scale production and dissemination of idealized images of Japan corresponding to Western taste and produced using a more precise technique.
The naturalistic representation of flowers and birds (handsō-ga) is one of the characteristics of Shin hanga. Ohara Koson, also called Shōsound, specializes in handsō- for, illustrated in this exhibition by, in particular, Two birds on a wisteria branch (first half of 20rd century). There are nearly 500 prints of this type produced by Koson, who trained by studying works from the School Shijō, mixing traditional Japanese techniques and Western realism.
Landscapes nevertheless constitute the predominant genre of the movement. Shin hanga. A trained watercolorist and painter, the artist Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) was particularly distinguished in this genre of which he is one of the greatest representatives. In fact, we know of around 600 drawings made in collaboration with Watanabe Shozabur.ō (1885-1962), collaboration started in 1918. The shore at Shikishima, Maebashi, dated 1942, testifies to the mastery of colors on the part of the artist who here represents a dreamlike Japan of which Westerners are particularly fond.
 Kawase Hasui. The shore at Shikishima, Maebashi. 1942. Polychrome woodcut. |
 Yoshida Hiroshi. “Daedong Gate (Pyongyang, Korea)”. 1937. Polychrome woodcut. |
The exhibition ends with the presentation of works by Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950), whose representations of landscapes result from his travels in the United States, Europe and the Asian continent. Daedong Gate (Pyongyang, Korea), 1937, demonstrates his taste for representing variations in light, made possible by printing the image in several successive colors. This atmospheric rendering is reminiscent of Impressionism, which seems to have had a great influence on the artists of the movement Shin hanga.
Thus, these works, signed by great representatives of the Utagawa School and the movement Shin hanga, illustrate all the richness of the two major trends in the history of Japanese prints in the 19rd and 20rd centuries.
