A Japanese colour Nagasaki-e print depicting a Dutch chief with a Javanese servant and a dog in a European landscape
Nagasaki, Edo-period, early 19th century
The title 'Holland Berg en water’, translated as 'Dutch mountain and water’. This is a translation of the Japanese term sansui for 'landscape illustration’.
Colour woodblock print, H. 25.4 x W. 19.6 cm
The Dutch chief is often portrayed in the company of his dog. It had not escaped the notice of the Japanese designers that the dog played an essential role as an animal companion in the lives of the Dutch. Initially, the Japanese considered this association with dogs rather strange, but later they were asked by the Shogun to demonstrate how to teach dogs not only for hunting but also for the performance of tricks.
The title 'Holland Berg en water’, translated as 'Dutch mountain and water’. This is a translation of the Japanese term sansui for 'landscape illustration’.
Colour woodblock print, H. 25.4 x W. 19.6 cm
The Dutch chief is often portrayed in the company of his dog. It had not escaped the notice of the Japanese designers that the dog played an essential role as an animal companion in the lives of the Dutch. Initially, the Japanese considered this association with dogs rather strange, but later they were asked by the Shogun to demonstrate how to teach dogs not only for hunting but also for the performance of tricks.
Part of the Japan collection.
Related objects
Large panoramic painting of the bay of Nagasaki, painted after photographs taken by Pierre Rossier (Swiss 1829-c. 1886), in 1860 (circa 1860)
unknown Japanese artist (19th century)
A Japanese painting depicting Commodore Matthew Perry’s flagship USS Mississippi
Late Edo period, Bakumatsu, circa 1854
A rare Japanese Nagasaki school scroll painting, Kakemono, attributed to Ishizaki Yũshi (1768-1846)
Strange-looking Westerners and their odd garments were a favoured subject in Japanese art, on ceramics, in paintings, prints and netsuke. The Japanese word for prostitute is ‘keisei’, and possibly the Dutch living on Deshima corrupted that Japanese word to ‘keesje’, for prostitute, and ‘kezen’, for making love, as depicted in the Japanese shunga, or ‘spring pictures.’ For a scroll of shunga, erotic pictures of Dutchmen and Japanese women engaged in sex at the Dutch trading post of Deshima, see Zebregs&Röell, Kawahara Keiga studio paintings, Maastricht, June 2020, pg 102-111.