Watanabe Seitei

Meiji period, 19th century

1868-1912

Painting

An ink and coloured painting on silk bordered in silk mounts and bone jikusaki (scroll ends). I beautifully painted image of four doves in a Japanese maple tree. An almost dream-like image dissolving into the background giving an ethereal feeling.  

Watanabe Seitei (1851-1918), was born as Yoshikawa Yoshimata, and later adopted by Watanabe Mitsue. At the age of sixteen studied under the artist Kikuchi Yosai and soon after spent a brief time in the studio of the renowned artist Shibata Zeshin.

Watanabe Seitei was one of the first artists to visit the United States and Europe attending the 1878 international exhibition in Paris. He remained in Paris for three years and became the first Nihonga artist to live in Europe to study Western painting. On his return from Europe, Seitei created designs for ceramics and cloisonne for the artist Namikawa Sosuke (1847-1910). The similarity in this painting to the wireless cloisonne of Sosuke can be seen.

Signed Watanabe Seitei with red seal

Scroll size 586mm x 1983mm

Painting size 413mm x 1080mm