56 
House & Card 
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Paintings by American Artists ;; 
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"I IE picture on the wall is the first element of dec¬ 
oration to catch the eye. It may easily spoil an 
'-13 otherwise perfect room. Its selection should he the result 
3' of careful thought, supplemented by professional advice 
- WILLIAM MACBETH 
Incorporated 
m 450 Fifth Avenue uu Fortieth streen New York City 
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■ Reproduction, 
Old Tuscan Table 
$150.00 
The Story of Japanese Painting 
portrait of Shotoku. 
Delicate pinks and rich 
greens, flecked here and 
there with arabesques 
of gold, the color-har¬ 
mony charming as ever 
Whistler compassed, the 
general effect having a 
stateliness which neither 
Rubens nor Van Dyck 
often surpassed—-such 
is this masterpiece, one 
of the greatest things 
in the whole art of the 
Far East. 
Toba Sojo and Those 
After Him 
So princely a painter 
as Kanaoka necessarily 
proved a great stimu¬ 
lus to aspiration with 
Japanese artists, the 
next strong individual¬ 
ity among whom was 
Toba Sojo, a bishop, 
who lived in the mid- 
11th Century. He was 
primarily a humorist, figuring the dra¬ 
matis personae of contemporaneous po¬ 
litical events in the guise of rabbits, or 
foxes, or frogs; and though, as a rule, 
jokes seem rather stale when even a 
hundred years old, Toba’s are as de¬ 
lightfully fresh still as if they had been 
made only yesterday. 
The output of humorous cartoons, 
concerned with politics or with the life 
of ordinary people, increased at great 
speed immediately subsequent to Toba’s 
time, and his name came to be the 
generic term for such works, a specially 
brilliant adept in’ this field being Gaki 
Zoshi, whose somewhat sardonic wit 
recalls Goya. < 
Coevally there was founded the prac¬ 
tice of painting scenes in bygone his¬ 
tory, in which sort of art a rare mas¬ 
ter was Hato no Munezane, whose chef 
d’oeuvre illustrates the deeds of Sho¬ 
toku; while in 1352 was born Cho 
Densu, master alike of portraiture and 
landscape, also a fine painter of religious 
pictures. As portraitist he showed him¬ 
self as shrewd a critic of human char¬ 
acter as Hogarth or Holbein, while 
sometimes he would vitalize the human 
form as strongly as Rodin or Hals. It 
is told that the Shogun, conceiving an 
enthusiastic interest in Densu’s art, told 
him to name the greatest wish of his 
life, the painter at once exclaiming: 
“Sire, one thing alone do I long for, the 
■passing of a law, forbidding people to 
picnic in the grounds of the Tofukuji 
Temple, Kyoto, where I live and work, 
for such visitors always spoil the 
beauty of the scene by leaving refuse 
behind them.” 
Shogun Patronage 
The term “Shogun” may be cryptic 
to some readers. So it behooves me to 
explain that, from Toba Sojo’s time on¬ 
wards till the Revolution of 1868, the 
Mikados never had any real power, al¬ 
though they were regarded as divine, 
the government being controlled by the 
Shogunate, which office was hereditary 
in various noble houses in succession. 
Shortly before Densu’s 
day, it was acquired by 
the Ashikaga family, 
nearly all the Shoguns 
of which line were sin¬ 
gularly artistic, several 
of them being them¬ 
selves gifted amateur- 
painters. It was during 
their regime that fine 
landscape - painting 
came to be widely 
practised in Japan. 
It would have been 
strange, indeed, had 
Japan not had great 
landscapists, for, Den¬ 
su’s complaint about 
the picnic parties not¬ 
withstanding, there is 
perhaps no country 
where the love of nat¬ 
ural beauty is so wide¬ 
ly evident as there. 
Even the humblest, 
roughest people are 
often fond of extolling 
stream, or forest, or 
flowers, while Japanese literature is sin¬ 
gularly full of glowing tributes to 
mountain and moorland; and it was 
scenery of the wild, mountainous 
kind which chiefly inspired Shubun, 
a favorite artist with the Shogun, 
Yoshimassa. 
Shubun’s Followers 
Among Shubun’s pupils was Masa- 
nobu; among his friends Soami; the 
former being renowned for his hieratic 
paintings besides his landscapes, while 
Soami was poet as well as landscapist, 
famous for his erudition in old pic¬ 
tures, and, like Kanaoka, a celebrated 
designer of gardens. 
It was in Soami’s studio that Sesshiu 
began work, this master being also a 
poet and scholar, devoted to playing 
the flute, sadly fond of drink although 
he belonged to the priesthood. Having 
finished his studies with Soami, he set 
off for China, in search of a teacher 
who would further improve his skill. 
His pictures being heard of by the Chi¬ 
nese Emperor, he was invited to the 
court, the suggestion being made there 
that he should give an impromptu dis¬ 
play, whereupon he called for a broom, 
with which he drew an enormous dra¬ 
gon, its vitality delighting the whole 
assemblage. “But I can find none in 
all China who can teach me anything!” 
exclaimed the artist proudly, which 
boast is easily pardoned, considering 
the loveliness of Sesshiu’s art. He is 
the Corot of Japan, his concern as 
landscapist being usually with the more 
pensive moods of nature; while as bird- 
painter he has few, if any, rivals. 
During the time of his activity there 
came on the scene Tosa Mitsunobu, 
adept in many styles, fostering his 
genius by keen study of various foreign 
schools, to-day busy with portraiture, 
the next with history, and commonly 
giving his historical incidents exquisite 
landscape backgrounds. Deservedly he 
won the ardent patronage of the Mi¬ 
kado, at once an official honor and a 
recognition of his talent. 
(Continued from page 31) 
“Kwannon, Goddess of 
Compassion”, by Den- 
sho, the Japanese Fra 
Angelico 
THE HOUSE OF THREE OABLES' 
3 E. 5ai> ST., N. Y. 
‘The Carnival of Flowers”, an amusing caricature by Toba Sojo, 
the llth Century artist 
