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Nouët, Noël

Description:
Shinobazu Ike (Shinobazu Pond: 不忍池)
Signature:
"Tokyo 1936 Noel Nouet" in the block, lower middle of image
Seals:
No artist seal
Publisher:
Doi Hangaten
Date:
1936 (later printing from the original blocks)
Format:
(H x W)
Large ôban
40.4 X 27.6 cm
Impression:
Excellent
Condition:
Excellent color and condition, never backed thick paper; tiny thin spot in LR corner
Price (USD/¥):

$435 / Contact us to pay in yen (¥)

Order/Inquiry: NON01

Comments:
Background

Shuncho hana-ogi obanNoël Nouët (1885-1969) was born Frédéric Anges Nouët in Locmine, Brittany. He was an unusual figure in the history of twentieth-century printmaking in Japan, as he was primarily a poet and writer. His first collection of poems was published that year under the title Les Étoiles entre les feuilles (The Stars between the Leaves), for which he won the inaugural Prix de littérature spiritualiste. Two more poetry collections followed in 1912 and 1913.

After the First World War, Nouët frequented Parisian literary salons where he befriended French and Japanese artists, writers, and poets. Relocating to Japan in January 1926, he began a three-year position as a French teacher at Shizuoka High School near Mount Fuji. Returning to France in March 1929, he resumed his poetry career, supporting himself by teaching French to Japanese living in Paris. In 1930, Nouët's fourth collection of poems was published, many of which describe the Japanese landscape.

While in Tokyo during the 1930s, Nouët made pen-and-ink sketches of the city's sights, including Kanda and Ginza. In 1934, the Japan Times and Mail published a collection of fifty such sketches in a bilingual book entitled Tokyo As Seen By A Foreigner (Vue par un étranger). A second volume of an additional fifty sketches was published the following year, and in 1937, a third collection entitled Tokyo: Old City, Modern Capital, Fifty Sketches (Tokyo: Ville Ancienne Capitale Moderne Cinquante Croquis) was published by La Maison Franco-Japonaise. Other publications followed, including Tokyo (東京) in 1946 documenting the post-war ruin of the city.

The first exhibition of Nouët's works took place in December 1950 at the Mannendo Gallery in Ginza. It received favorable notices, including one from his friend, the novelist Nagai Kafû (永井荷風 1879-1959, pseudonym for Nagai Sôkichi 永井壮吉). In 1936, one of Nouët's former foreign-language students, the son of the Tokyo woodblock print publisher Doi Sadaichi (土井貞一) and older brother to Sadaichi's successor, Doi Eiichi (土井英一), offered to have his family turn one of Nouët's ink sketches into a woodblock print, a rather challenging project given the fine lines made by a fountain pen. Their success prompted Doi Sadaichi to publish in 1937 a series of full color prints designed by Nouët called Tokyo fûkei zen nijûyo mai (Scenes of Tokyo, twenty-four views: 東京風景[...] 二十四枚). Over the years, certain critics have suggested that given the Western-style linear (non-brushed) quality of Nouët's sketches, relief-etched zinc plates (mounted to woodblocks) must have been used for the keyblocks to capture the quality of the thin lines. However, the contemporary block carver and printer David Bull confirmed in 2017 (ref. below) that the present-day Doi Hangaten inventory of original blocks for Nouët's prints confirms that the designs were made entirely from solid cherry wood and that no metal plates were involved.

Doi Teiichi (also called Doi Sadaichi, 土井貞一) was a Tokyo publisher (firm name Tokyo-dô, 東京堂) of shin-hanga from around 1930-31 through his death in 1945, working with many well known artists, including Kawase Hasui, Tsuchiya Koitsu, and Noël Nouët. After his death, his son Doi Eiichi (土井英一 1917-1996) took over his publishing studio (firm name Doi Hangaten 土井版画店), which continues in business today.

For more about Noël Nouët, see Nouët Biography.

Design

Shinobazu Ike (Shinobazu Pond: (不忍池) is located within Ueno Park, Tokyo. The site has been the subject of various fûkeiga (landscapes: 風景画), including designs in Utagawa Hiroshige's Koto meisho (Famous places in Edo: 江都名所) circa 1832-34; Tôto meisho (Famous places in the eastern capital: 東都名所) circa 1840; and Ueno Kiyomizudô Shinobazu no ike (Kiyomizu Hall and Shinobazu Pond at Ueno: 上野清水堂不忍ノ池) in Meisho Edo hyakkei (100 famous views of Edo: 名所江戸百景) in 1856. Nouët's woodcut for Shinobazu Pond was adapted from a pen and ink drawing done in 1936 (see image at right; reproduced in Tokyo: Old City, Modern Capital, Fifty Sketches (1937). In this instance, the overall linearity of the drawing was attenuated in the final woodcut, with the exception of numerous vertical lines in the shadowy water below the houses.

References:

  1. David Bull: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbj83bxu3Kg (discussion of the Doi Hanga Co. and two different scenes of the Kagurazaka district of Tokyo; last accessed November 15, 2020).
  2. Darrel Karl's blog: http://easternimp.blogspot.com/2017/08/nouet-to-draw-city-tokyo-sketches-of.html (much of the biography given above is based on this page; last accessed November 15, 2020; which, in turn, relied heavily on Christian Polak's Sabre et Pinceau: Par d'autres Français au Japon, 1872-1960 (Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie Française du Japon 2007).