Skip to main content

We use cookies and tags on our website to provide you with a better website experience, advertising based on your browsing habits, and to understand what our website is being used for, and for statistics and measurement purposes. By clicking ‘I Accept’, or clicking on our website, you agree to such purposes and the sharing of your data with our trusted partners.
For further information, please read Privacy Policy.

Past Exhibitions
[Prints and Drawings Exhibition]
Masterpieces from the Museum of Capodimonte in Naples, from Renaissance to Baroque

[Prints and Drawings Exhibition]
Masterpieces from the Museum of Capodimonte in Naples, from Renaissance to Baroque

image: Charles Meryon《Eaux-fortes sur Paris: Le Petit Pont》
Charles Meryon
Eaux-fortes sur Paris: Le Petit Pont
1850
National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo

Dates
18 September 2010 - 28 November 2010
Venue
National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Prints and Drawings Gallery
Organized by
National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo

As the popularity of lithographs, primarily produced by Romantic painters, waned in France during the first half of the 19th century, gradually the outlook for the production of prints as art works darkened. Print publishers widely distributed lithographs as book figures and satirical prints, thanks to the medium’s ability to mass produce images cheaply, but they were loathe to create labor-intensive prints. On the other hand, this was also a period that saw demand from conservatives for prints that reproduced the oil paintings of the masters of the past. In the midst of these conflicting trends, Meryon and Bresdin explored the expressive potential of printing techniques, creating works with their own unique world view. This process was then picked up and continued by Bracquemond, Redon, and other painters of the day. The black seen in their etchings and lithographs seemed to reflect the dark depths of their era and the human heart, while the white of the paper ground shines through as expressions of light.
This exhibition introduces 40 prints by these four 19th century French painters who sought original expression in the print medium. We hope that visitors to the exhibition will enjoy the rich expression they achieved in their monochrome realms created in ink and paper.

Exhibition checklist (PDF File, about 150KB)PDF