France (A French Photographer Assisted by His Wife)

Currently not on view

France (A French Photographer Assisted by His Wife)

1861

Utagawa Yoshikazu (Japanese, active c. 1850-70) Published by Izumiya Ichibei, Kansendō

Although photography had been introduced to Japan in the late 1840s, interest in the medium increased dramatically after the opening of the country and the establishment of its first commercial photography studio by an American in Yokohama in 1860. Over the next decade, an influx of foreign photographers came to Japan to record the exotic culture and shared their knowledge, equipment, and skills with local practitioners. Felix Beato, perhaps the most famous Western photographer to have worked in Japan at this time, operated a studio in Yokohama from 1863 to 1877. The association of Yokohama with new photography techniques makes this image of a photographer a logical choice for a Yokohama print. The subject's designation as a Frenchman may allude to the nationality of Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, the inventor of the daguerreotype (1839), one of the earliest photographic processes.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Titles:

France (A French Photographer Assisted by His Wife)

Date:

1861

Artists:

Utagawa Yoshikazu (Japanese, active c. 1850-70) Published by Izumiya Ichibei, Kansendō

Medium:

Color woodcut

Dimensions:

Sheet (Ōban tate-e): 14 1/4 × 9 3/4 inches (36.2 × 24.8 cm)

Classification:

Prints

Credit Line:

Purchased with the Lola Downin Peck Fund and with funds contributed by Lessing J. Rosenwald, Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Hauslohner, Dr. Emanuel Wolff, the Derald and Janet Ruttenberg Foundation, Mrs. Edward G. Budd, Jr., and David P. Willis, 1968

Accession Number:

1968-165-47

Geography:

Made in Japan, Asia

Context:

Period: Edo Period (1615-1868)

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Currently not on view