Japanese Prints at the Museum Del Prado

The exhibition "Japanese Prints in the Museo del Prado" presents a small selection of these works from our collection, which entered the Museum from the Museo de Arte Moderno in 1936. At that time, the then director of the Museo de Arte Moderno decided to buy a group of prints that had been included in a travelling exhibition held in Paris and Geneva and which aimed to offer an overview of the history of the Japanese print from the 17th to the 19th centuries. From the starting point of this group, the Prado went on to acquire another group in the 1950s and more recently, in 2006 and 2007, various donations have added a group of illustrated books. The result is this small collection, which is now on display for the first time since 1936. The Museo del Prado’s collection of Japanese prints is a small one but of considerable importance due to the works in it. The earliest prints date from the late 17th century, while there is a particularly comprehensive selection of 19th-century prints. Representative of the history of Japanese printmaking they are rarely encountered in Spanish collections. The earliest dates from the late 17th century and was formerly attributed to Hishikawa Moronobu but is very probably by Torii Kiyonobu, the founder of the Torii School. Some particularly well preserved examples from the second half of the 18th century are by important artists such as Kubo Shunman, Ishiwaka Toyonobu and Katsukawa Shunsho, who were leading figures in the evolution of the Japanese print. Finally, there is a representative selection of Japanese printmaking of the 19th century. The 19th-century section is particularly strong on works by Utamaro, Hokusai and Hiroshige, who were the three great names, particularly in the West due to the high esteem in which they were held by collectors. There are also examples from the Utagawa School. A number of triptychs show the range and variety of subject matter and styles, which is less commonly encountered and is the aspect that makes this collection important. Also important is the fact that they were acquired in 1936, locating them within the context of a widespread collecting movement that began in the late 19th century. The Museo del Prado houses Mariano Fortuny’s exceptional painting "The Artist’s Children in the Japanese Room", but aside from Fortuny there were numerous other artists who also collected Japanese prints. One of the examples in this group came from the Madrazo collection, which adds a further element of interest and importance in the sense that our collection was acquired during the japoniste period when Japanese art was rediscovered, reassessed and disseminated in the West, this case through a major exhibition that was held at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Madrid in 1936. We also have ukiyo-e prints or prints of the “floating world”, which convey the atmosphere of that ephemeral world depicted by 18th- and 19th-century artists. Some depict scenes from the kabuki theatre, which were episodes based on texts of classical Japanese literature such as Ise monogatary, as well as scenes of the countryside. Both a stylistic and a thematic evolution is evident in these works, with the earlier ones based on scenes from literature and theatre and the later ones looking to the natural world, which was one of the great themes of 19th-century Japanese printmaking, exemplified by the work of Hiroshige. The collection is particularly rich in his work. This exhibition is part of a project that has been underway since the middle of the last decade when various researchers began to study this previously un-catalogued collection. The first to examine it was a group of experts in Oriental art from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, followed more recently by Ricard Bru who produced the catalogue raisonné of this collection and studied the provenance of all the prints. Research has subsequently been published in the Boletín of the Museum and the catalogue entries on all the prints are now available on our website. The final stage in this project was the present exhibition, accompanied by a small catalogue produced in an elegant, playful Japanese style. In it, the reader will find an introduction by Ricard Bru and reproductions of all the prints on display. Visitors to the Prado normally find themselves in front of large or even enormous paintings, but on this occasion the viewer has to come up close to see prints that can perhaps be considered the most sophisticated creations within Oriental culture. In principle, these images were intended to be held in the hand and touched, with their typical matte Japanese paper that does not make a sound when it moves. On this occasion, however, we have been obliged to frame them, but it is essential to come up close when looking at them. It is also essential to note the exceptionally delicate colours in images that in some cases seem to be made up of only two or three tones. However, a closer examination reveals different shades of blue, violet and pink. This is, in fact, one of the unique characteristics of these prints. Artists of this period were exceptionally meticulous in their approach to colour and polychromy, using them to create a sensation of elegance and richness, which is an important element in these prints. Looking at these works allows us to travel to a far-away world but a highly appealing one, which fascinated Japanese and Western artists to an equal degree.