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Realism in Japan and the Netherlands
Shiba Kokan A meeting of Japan, China and the West late 18th century
The hand of Hendrick Goltzius
One of my paintings on this site is The Fall of Man. I painted it as an exercise to master a large complex composition and to practice flesh coulors.
The painting is a copy of "The Fall of Man" made by Hendrick Goltzius (1558 - 1617). Adam and Eve in Paradise is an wellknown theme in art but this Adam and Eve are special because as far as I know it is the only paradise scene in which Adam and Eve are portrayed as an amorous couple in an explicit seduction scene.
Goltzius started his oilpainting career around 1600. At that time he was famous all over Europe as a graphic artist. Some of his comtemporaries compared him with Albrecht Durer. Convinced of his talent he was inclined to agree with that ranking.
When he was one year old he burned his right hand.
He grew up with a mutilated hand he could not fully open. Nevertheless with this hand (he was right handed) he succeeded to become a famous artist.
He portrayed his own mutilated hand several times (see above) The story goes that once travelling abroad, he had to show his mutilated hand to prove that he was indeed the great artist Goltzius.
The Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem (Holland) has a large collection of his work, including many paintings, but not The Fall of Man. You have to travel to the United States (National Gallery of Art) to see Goltzius' Adam and Eve.
Natsume Soseki 1867-1916
When I studied the life and career of Hashiguchi Goyo, I discovered that he illustrated the first novel of the Japanese writer Natsume Soseki. During my stay in Japan I read almost all novels of Soseki, including his first one called "I am a cat". In the Meiji period Natsume Soseki was one of the youngsters sent out abroad to gather knowledge for the development of Japan. He was sent to Europe (United Kingdom) to study English literature. In his later years Soseki has written about his stay in England. It was the most miserable and loniest time of his life. Back in Japan he taught English literature but soon left the university to become a succesful writer. Even today he his still an icon of Japanese literature and the most important prewar modern writer of Japan.
His life coincided with the Meiji period. A turbulent period of modernization of the Japanese society after two centuries of isolation. The uneasy relationship between modernization (Westernization) and Japanese culture is one of the major themes of his work. In his novels one can taste the atmosphere of change in Japan, the way modernization affects individual relationhips and the uneasiness it produces. Natsume Soseki died at the age of 49 and left his last novel "Light and Darkness" unfinished.
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