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Japanese Art of the Meiji Period (1868 – 1912)

The Khalili Collection of Japanese Art, the world’s most comprehensive collection of Meiji decorative art, comprises over 1,600 pieces including works by most of the known masters from the middle of the 19th century to the early 20th century. Comparable in its extent only to that held by the Japanese Imperial family, the Collection houses many objects created by artists who had received the outstanding honour of becoming Artists to the Imperial Household and these masters, together with other sublime artists represented in the Collection, frequently won gold medals as participants in the great world expositions of that time. In many ways, it is no exaggeration to say that many of the intricate and technically accomplished objects in the Collection would be impossible to replicate today. Furthermore, echoes of the ground-breaking art produced in the Meiji period can be witnessed since the birth of the Avant-garde in Europe to this day. From the heavy influence on the Impressionists during the hayday of ‘Japonisme’ right up to the most cutting-edge digital art of the 21st century, the influence of Meiji art on the contemporary world is unparalleled.

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Japanese Art of the Meiji Period (1868 – 1912)

The masterpieces of Meiji art, in a unique style blending the best of traditional design with prevailing international taste, are unrivalled in the quality of their craftsmanship and were avidly sought by Western collectors. In more recent times, however, they have been neglected by scholars and collectors alike. Now Professor Sir Nasser D. Khalili has formed the world’s greatest collection of Meiji decorative art, comprising pieces of metalwork, enamels, lacquerwork, ceramics and silk embroideries works by most of the known masters from the middle of the 19th century to the early 20th century. Until the 1980s very few had bothered to distinguish the good from the bad in Meiji arts and crafts, let alone the very good from the good. One of the reasons Sir David has formed this Collection has been to rehabilitate these remarkable works of ‘art-craft’: to demonstrate their unrivalled virtuosity and to promote the study of their genesis and progression.

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Pair of Samurai Figures

Japan, circa 1890

bronze, thick gilding, silver and shakudo

height 223 and 226 cm (overall), 99 and 104 cm (figures)

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Incense Burner (Koro)

Japan, circa 1890

silver, shakudo, shibuichi, gold, silver and a shakudo-copper mokume alloy

height 37.1 cm

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Japanese Art of the Meiji Period Publications available from www.khalilicollections.org

A series of 11 volumes exploring the Collection. One volume comprises six illustrated essays provides essential background information on the history of the Meiji period (1868–1912). Janet Hunter of the London School of Economics describes the drastic changes brought by the Meiji revolution. Another volume introduces 161 examples from the greatest group of Meiji-period masterpieces in metal ever assembled, decorated in an astonishing variety of virtuoso techniques and drawing on a vast store of subject matter derived from Chinese and Japanese history, legend, and religion. Another highlights Japanese cloisonné enamels, which were a technical triumph of the Meiji (1868–1912) and Taisho (1912–26) periods, and the 107 examples (of near-300 in the collection) reproduced in this volume offer an unrivalled panorama of achievement centred around the work of three artists: Namikawa Yasuyuki, Namikawa Sosuke, and Ando Jubei. Another volume, published in two parts, deals with the development of, respectively, porcelain and earthenware. The first part concentrates on Miyagawa (Makuzu) Kozan (1842–1916), illustrating more than 80 examples of his virtuoso work in porcelain. The second part of the catalogue of the ceramic holdings of the Collection focuses on another great artist-entrepreneur, Yabu Meizan (1853–1934), and illustrates 171 of his earthenwares and those of his contemporaries and imitators, minutely decorated in enamels and gold over a characteristic crackled ground. Another highlights the Khalili collection of 100 works by Shibata Zeshin (1807–91), the finest in the world. In another volume, six renowned scholars and specialists examine the wider influence of Japanese art and design in Europe with superlative examples from the Khalili Collection, the world’s finest collection of works from the Meiji period. They demonstrate that the Japanese influence on modern Western art has been far more penetrating than has been widely recognised. Finally, a forthcoming volume spotlights the prosperous textile industry of the period, which has receive little attention until recent years.

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