Artist unknown :[Book of Japanese watercolours. ca 1866-1870]

Watercolour drawings by an unidentified Japanese artist, executed in the Southern school of painting technique known as Nanga, derived from Chinese painting. Images include birds, some animals, landscapes, and studies of people

Accompanied by correspondence between Sir David Smith and Professor Mikio Hiramatsu of Keio University, Tokyo during June 1961 (found at MS-Group-1991). Professor Hiramatsu presented the book of watercolours to Sir David as a thank-you gift. At a request from Sir David, the professor provided scant information about the book, including the artistic style of the paintings and an estimate of when they were painted. A photocopy of this note is with the sketchbook

Nanga or bunjinga paintings almost always depicted traditional Chinese subjects. Artists focused almost exclusively on landscapes and birds and flowers. Poetry or other inscriptions were also an important element of these paintings, and were often in fact added by friends of the artist, not by the painter himself.

Quantity: 1 sketchbook(s).

Physical Description: Watercolour on 69 pages of Japanese paper, bound but not covered, 275 x 195 mm

Provenance: Donation: Helen Sutch, Wellington, 2012

Transfers: From Manuscripts & Archives - MS-Group-1991 - Collection as a whole taken into Manuscripts; other items transferred to Photographic Archive.