New-York tribune., 1921-01-19
Japanese Color
Prints of Vivid
Beauty ON View
700 at Delmonico's Embrace
Many Rarities, Showing
Nature and Art Fused
With Peculiar Felicity
By Royal Cortissoz

~ A>OJoA WI tiSSOL
Inc managers of the Walpole CAL
lerles have done we'll to take over
tne supper room at Delmonico's for
the exhibition and sale of the Jana
nese prints which they have latelv re-
celved from Partisan collector. More
space than they ordinarily control was
needed for the proper display of this
CODY OF nearly 700 prints. The name of
the French owner is not stated in the
catalogue, but it Wilt be OWNED bv sne-
thlallstts, tha st. who have long known by repute
have two claims to attention. Thev en-
o., prace rarities, and they maintain
throughout xn extraordinary average
as regards excellence of impression.
Nature and art arc fused with peculiar
fehclty in the Japanese print. The
masters in this field of design prac
tlced remarkable> technique, remark
able not only, in the high pitch of per-
!ection to which it was brought, but
IN its delightful freedom from the
deadening influence of convention
There is much conventionality in the
Japanese print, but it is vitalized by
lts close alliance with the principles
or life. 1t mirrors the Japanese snec
tacle with absolute fidelity. Its real
ISM is not yelled, but heightened by
the technical habit which links Uta-
marc, say, with Botticeli. To think Of
tnese two types together is to think
OF the manner in which the East and
impulse toward artistic expression.
lhey have united on the incompatible
eloquence of line
Linear RonuTv Enrl.o~4:--
1t is linear beauty. first and last,
that makes an exhibition like this one
enchanting Color, of course. plays a
portentously important part. Where
would the landscape men be without
1t! Hiroshige and Hokusai are fairly
magical in their manipulation Of color,
wonderfully extending the range of
those nominally fiat tints character
lstic Of the school. The draughtsmen
OF the figure, too, are always discreet
and sometimes brilliant colorists. But
1T is on their discretion rather than
their brilliance that we are inclined to
llnger, the discretion with which their
color IS not precisely subordinated to
line, but is at any rate so handled as
to enhance the linear effect. Japanese
line is far more akin to Botticelli and
the Florentine renaissance generally
than it is to our modern Western line.
The latter is rich in volume and utterly
spontaneous in the expression of ner-
vous force. Japanese line is line
purified and synthetized, a line which
lives by restraint and simplicity. 1t
is capable, by the same token, of rising
to monumental heights. and whether in
monumental Or in intimate passages
it IS most subtly expressive.
These masters work q kind Of spell.
A collection as large as this one is,
in a sense. rather confusing; but after
the first impression Of multtudinous
figures wears off, the observer is con-
all about him, the individuality CT so
many of the types delineatcd, One
Oriental wrestler, we are inclined to
say, is very like another, and so it is
with the innumerable women in the
endless Japanese pageant. But let the
student look more closely. Let him
look at Utamaro's Nenus-for that is
what she is--in his "Awaki- shell
Divers of Ise" (No 661) and then turn
from that to Eshi's costumed lady
(No. 1889 and note how in each case
the artist gives you not only the grace
full form of his tradition, but the per-
ton. The discovery of these fresh
original traits (the true tokens Of
creative art) goes on over and over
again as we traverse this collection
And while we are beguiled by the
infinite variety of the realism in the
Japanese print we are further stint
lated by such flashes Of romantic emo
tion AS that to be recognized in the
beautiful design by an unknown
master {No. 250) III which a pair Of
lovers fly through the air on the back
of gigantic white crane.
Imagination Not Absent
Imagination is not absent from the
work of this school. The Japanese
print is sometimes curiously dramatic.
Witness almost any Of the scenes in
IL irc.c l,;cxo,r CT of lo