Portrait of Takami Senseki by Watanabe Kazan
Portrait of Takami Senseki
by Watanabe Kazan
Edo period, 19th century
Hanging scroll, color on silk
Height 115.1 cm; Width 57.1 cm
(Tokyo National Museum)
Takami Senseki (1785-1858) was a senior advisor (karo) of the Koga domain in the what is today part of Ibaraki Prefecture, and was known in Edo as a great expert in Dutch studies (rangaku). It must have been a great joy for Watanabe Kazan (1793-1841), who himself worked assiduously to popularize European knowledge and to promote Japan's modernization, to paint this portrait of the older scholar whom he admired greatly. This masterpiece not only reveals the sincerity and devotion of the artist but also its excellence as portraiture. Both the treatment of the subject's facial features (in a way that so well captures his character) and the precision of the lines of the clothing reflect a superb combination of Western painting style and Chinese-inspired brush techniques.
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