DOI issue:
No. 261 (December 1914)
DOI article:Studio-talk
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21211#0232
Studio-Talk
Another artist whose death has in the midst of are not easy to be forgotten by those whose fortune
the turmoil of the war passed almost unheeded it has been to visit these famous buildings. Those
is Rene Billotte, who died in Paris early in Novem- who visited the Japan-British Exhibition, held in
ber at the age of sixty-eight. He suffered from London four years ago, will remember how effec-
heart disease, and the emotions aroused by the tive such a door was in the model Japanese house,
great struggle now going on proved too much for which now stands in the garden of Prince Arthur
him. This talented landscape painter was an of Connaught at Bagshot (see p. 234).
habitue of Northern France, and rendered with -
remarkable veracity and feeling the delicate greys This custom of using decorated sugi-to still exists
of its atmosphere and waters. From time to time in Japan. Those at Aoyama Palace, built for the
he also visited Holland, and some of the pictures late Empress Dowager, have attracted a good deal
he painted in the neighbourhood of Dordrecht are of attention in recent times. There were eleven
real masterpieces. Billotte was very modest about cedar panels, and an equal number of the leading
his own doings, and his sincerity was patent to artists of the day were chosen to paint on both
every one. His independent means allowed him sides of each door. The artists selected were
to work solely for the pleasure of it, and he was Matsumoto Fuko, a talented Tokyo artist whose
under no necessity to pander to the tastes of speciality is genre subjects; Terazaki Kogyo, pro-
others. A nephew of the great
Fromentin he acquired from
him not only a great respect
for art but also a general cul-
ture which was quite remark-
able. H. F.
TOKYO.—Among the
unique features in
the mural decora-
tions of old Japan-
ese palaces and temples are
the painted wooden doors in
the corridors which separate
the different sets of apart-
ments. The doors are in-
variably made from carefully
selected planks of sugi or
cedar, of enormous width and
beautiful grain, and are hence
called sugi-to, or cedar doors.
Some very fine examples exist
in various parts of Japan, such
as the one with the painting
of a lion, commonly called
happo - nerami-no-shishi (lion
staring in eight directions),
because it stares straight at the
beholder wherever he may
stand, in the Nijo Palace,
Kyoto, by Kano Tan-yu,
another in the same palace
with herons in the rain, by
Kano Naonobu, and the one
with sparrows and bamboo by
Kano Eitoku, in the Nagoya
cedar doors at baron fuiitas new mansion in osaka, with painting
Castle; doors such as these by mochizuki gyokkei
Another artist whose death has in the midst of are not easy to be forgotten by those whose fortune
the turmoil of the war passed almost unheeded it has been to visit these famous buildings. Those
is Rene Billotte, who died in Paris early in Novem- who visited the Japan-British Exhibition, held in
ber at the age of sixty-eight. He suffered from London four years ago, will remember how effec-
heart disease, and the emotions aroused by the tive such a door was in the model Japanese house,
great struggle now going on proved too much for which now stands in the garden of Prince Arthur
him. This talented landscape painter was an of Connaught at Bagshot (see p. 234).
habitue of Northern France, and rendered with -
remarkable veracity and feeling the delicate greys This custom of using decorated sugi-to still exists
of its atmosphere and waters. From time to time in Japan. Those at Aoyama Palace, built for the
he also visited Holland, and some of the pictures late Empress Dowager, have attracted a good deal
he painted in the neighbourhood of Dordrecht are of attention in recent times. There were eleven
real masterpieces. Billotte was very modest about cedar panels, and an equal number of the leading
his own doings, and his sincerity was patent to artists of the day were chosen to paint on both
every one. His independent means allowed him sides of each door. The artists selected were
to work solely for the pleasure of it, and he was Matsumoto Fuko, a talented Tokyo artist whose
under no necessity to pander to the tastes of speciality is genre subjects; Terazaki Kogyo, pro-
others. A nephew of the great
Fromentin he acquired from
him not only a great respect
for art but also a general cul-
ture which was quite remark-
able. H. F.
TOKYO.—Among the
unique features in
the mural decora-
tions of old Japan-
ese palaces and temples are
the painted wooden doors in
the corridors which separate
the different sets of apart-
ments. The doors are in-
variably made from carefully
selected planks of sugi or
cedar, of enormous width and
beautiful grain, and are hence
called sugi-to, or cedar doors.
Some very fine examples exist
in various parts of Japan, such
as the one with the painting
of a lion, commonly called
happo - nerami-no-shishi (lion
staring in eight directions),
because it stares straight at the
beholder wherever he may
stand, in the Nijo Palace,
Kyoto, by Kano Tan-yu,
another in the same palace
with herons in the rain, by
Kano Naonobu, and the one
with sparrows and bamboo by
Kano Eitoku, in the Nagoya
cedar doors at baron fuiitas new mansion in osaka, with painting
Castle; doors such as these by mochizuki gyokkei