Grenouilles, M.C. 2019-2(4), Kawanabe Kyōsai, Entre 1871 et 1889

Author(s): kawanabe, kyōsai 河鍋暁斎 (ibaraki, 05–18–1831 - tōkyō, 04–26–1889) production date: between 1871 and 1889 dating in century: 19th century object type(s): japan name(s): painting materials and techniques: paper, colors - pigments place(s) of execution/production: japan dimensions - artwork: height: 184cm width: 47cm description: a free and insolent spirit, kawanabe kyōsai lived in a period of transition between the end of the edo period (1603-1868) and the beginning of the meiji era (1868-1912), where the tokugawa government ceded power to the emperor engaged in the formation of a modern state. Kyōsai began his training at the age of seven with the eccentric artist utagawa kuniyoshi (1798-1861) and then entered a workshop at the surugadai branch of the official kanō school of painting. A prolific artist, kyōsai created paintings and designed designs for prints; he also devoted himself to drawing manuals and illustrated books. He became famous for his caricatures and was highly appreciated by western enthusiasts such as émile guimet, who met him during his trip to japan with the artist félix régamey, or the english doctor william anderson, who commissioned several satirical works from him which are now part of the collection of the british museum. During his dissolute life, marked by his taste for alcohol and his biting satire which landed him in prison, he was an acute observer of the japan of his time, of which he grasped the changes linked to westernization and modernization. Kyōsai died at the age of fifty-nine and chose a frog-shaped stone for his tomb. This painting depicts a frog pulling a rickshaw (jinrikisha) with another frog wearing a lotus flower-shaped hat and a lotus stem-shaped cane. A means of transport invented in japan in the second half of the 19th century, the rickshaw is represented by the artist in a very original way with the streets formed of lotus leaves. On the right, a thin lotus stem serves as a pillar for the telegraph wire, a new means of communication in the meiji era. Like the latter, the figure of the postman personified by the third frog is a symbol of modernity. For kyōsai, who is said to have drawn a frog for the first time at the age of three, this animal is sacred and, like the lotus flower, is linked to buddhism. Marks, inscriptions, hallmarks: seal - hippō no nippon 筆鋒の日本 mode of acquisition: purchase date of acquisition: 2019 institution: cernuschi museum, museum of asian arts of the city of paris inventory number: m. C. 2019-2. Date: Entre 1871 et 1889.