DOI article:
Blattner, E. J.: Helen Hyde, an American artist in Japan
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43448#0066
Helen Hyde
finished etching, called Totty, representing a little
girl seated on a doorstep.
It did not please her. It seemed to her flat,
lifeless; something was lacking. Half-uncon-
sciously she took a bit of colour from her box, and
laying it on the plate, pressed this upon paper,
and lo I Totty had come to life ! Delighted with
the effect, she threw off a number of impressions,
varying the colours with astonishingly good result.
And thus she entered upon a new and significant
phase of her art.
Having given so much time and study to the
Asiatics as seen in America, she longed to know
them in their far-off Eastern homes. So when the
■coveted opportunity of a year’s visit to Japan
came it was seized with alacrity. A year’s sojourn
in Japan .' Such the plan ! But as with so many
■others who have come to this fascinating country,
the year has been many times multiplied.
As was to have been expected, the peculiar
•charm of the country soon cast its spell over her.
Her eye was intoxicated with the manifold
beauties about her, and she determined to study
these not only as found in nature, but their
expression in art by the great masters as well.
With this object in view, she asked Kano
Tomanobu, the last of
the great Kano school of
painters, to become her
teacher. He consented
to do so, and for two
years she devoted herself
to the task of acquiring
the Japanese method of
wielding the brush. This,
as is well known, is quite
different from our own,
and presents many diffi¬
culties to foreigners. But
day after day she worked
hard, sitting, as is the
fashion in Japan, on the
dainty white mats of the
floor, and earning well-
merited praise from her
gentle old teacher.
Her reward came
when, at the expiration of
two years, Tomanobu
asked her to paint a
kakemono for the annual
spring exhibition. She
did so, calling her picture
A Monarch of Japan.
52
It shows a charming young Japanese mother
proudly holding up a chubby baby to the ad-
miring gaze of a second young Japanese woman.
A tiny branch—a mere suggestion—of wistaria
cuts the upper edge of the picture, in true Japanese
fashion. Despite the Japanese accessories of dress,
&c., the sentiment of the whole is distinctly
Western, not Oriental. It is interesting to know
that this picture was awarded a first prize, on the
strength of excellent handling of a particularly
difficult brush—for it is by the merits or demerits
of skilful brushwork that Japanese pictures are
chiefly valued.
The great popularity enjoyed by this first public
venture encouraged Miss Hyde to follow the
custom of some of the Japanese artists of last
century, and reproduce her composition in the
form of a colour-print. It was thus that she
entered a field of art which has since made her
famous. The step was not an easy one, for she
was confronted at the outset by many new
mechanical details and difficulties. But her
enthusiasm carried her safely through all the
breakers. She bravely learned the various steps of
the Japanese process of colour-prints, which differs
somewhat from that in vogue in the West. The
“the greeting” (wood-engraving in colours)
BY HELEN HYDE
finished etching, called Totty, representing a little
girl seated on a doorstep.
It did not please her. It seemed to her flat,
lifeless; something was lacking. Half-uncon-
sciously she took a bit of colour from her box, and
laying it on the plate, pressed this upon paper,
and lo I Totty had come to life ! Delighted with
the effect, she threw off a number of impressions,
varying the colours with astonishingly good result.
And thus she entered upon a new and significant
phase of her art.
Having given so much time and study to the
Asiatics as seen in America, she longed to know
them in their far-off Eastern homes. So when the
■coveted opportunity of a year’s visit to Japan
came it was seized with alacrity. A year’s sojourn
in Japan .' Such the plan ! But as with so many
■others who have come to this fascinating country,
the year has been many times multiplied.
As was to have been expected, the peculiar
•charm of the country soon cast its spell over her.
Her eye was intoxicated with the manifold
beauties about her, and she determined to study
these not only as found in nature, but their
expression in art by the great masters as well.
With this object in view, she asked Kano
Tomanobu, the last of
the great Kano school of
painters, to become her
teacher. He consented
to do so, and for two
years she devoted herself
to the task of acquiring
the Japanese method of
wielding the brush. This,
as is well known, is quite
different from our own,
and presents many diffi¬
culties to foreigners. But
day after day she worked
hard, sitting, as is the
fashion in Japan, on the
dainty white mats of the
floor, and earning well-
merited praise from her
gentle old teacher.
Her reward came
when, at the expiration of
two years, Tomanobu
asked her to paint a
kakemono for the annual
spring exhibition. She
did so, calling her picture
A Monarch of Japan.
52
It shows a charming young Japanese mother
proudly holding up a chubby baby to the ad-
miring gaze of a second young Japanese woman.
A tiny branch—a mere suggestion—of wistaria
cuts the upper edge of the picture, in true Japanese
fashion. Despite the Japanese accessories of dress,
&c., the sentiment of the whole is distinctly
Western, not Oriental. It is interesting to know
that this picture was awarded a first prize, on the
strength of excellent handling of a particularly
difficult brush—for it is by the merits or demerits
of skilful brushwork that Japanese pictures are
chiefly valued.
The great popularity enjoyed by this first public
venture encouraged Miss Hyde to follow the
custom of some of the Japanese artists of last
century, and reproduce her composition in the
form of a colour-print. It was thus that she
entered a field of art which has since made her
famous. The step was not an easy one, for she
was confronted at the outset by many new
mechanical details and difficulties. But her
enthusiasm carried her safely through all the
breakers. She bravely learned the various steps of
the Japanese process of colour-prints, which differs
somewhat from that in vogue in the West. The
“the greeting” (wood-engraving in colours)
BY HELEN HYDE