A JAPANESE SCROLL PAINTING

A JAPANESE SCROLL PAINTING, KAKEMONO

EDO PERIOD OR LATER, 19TH CENTURY

In ink and colour on paper, depicting a Dutch tradesman and his attendant, the man wearing a dark coat and hat and holding a small feather fan, the man behind him carrying a brass horn, two red seal marks to the bottom right, in a tomobako wood box, 83cm x 28cm. (2)

This painting is in the style of 18th c. portraits of Dutch East-India Company employees living on the island of Dejima. The men wear long coats and tricorn hats, and are often depicted with attendants. These are nearly always of a much shorter stature, probably to emphasise the importance of their Western masters. See the Amsterdam Tropenmuseum, access. n. TM-267-1, for a two-fold screen depicting Dejima Commander Jan Cock Blomhoff (1779-1853) with an attendant, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, access. no. 2015.500.9.45 for a painting attributed to Kawahara Keiga of a Dutchman and servant.