Page 122 - Sotheby's London Fine Japanese Art Nov. 2019

119

ANONYMOUS On 8 July 1853, residents of Uraga on
EDO PERIOD, 19 TH CENTURY the outskirts of Edo (today Tokyo), the
capital of the Tokugawa shogunate, beheld
THE MISSISSIPPI STEAMBOAT an astonishing sight when four foreign
ENTERING TOKYO HARBOUR IN 1853 steamships entered their harbour under a
cloud of black smoke. The four Black Ships
ink and colour on paper, framed (kurofune) were called the Susquehanna, the
90 cm., 35⅜ in. wide
Mississippi, the Plymouth and the Saratoga.
PROVENANCE Commodore Matthew Perry had arrived to
request for Japan to end its two-century-long
Vanderbilt Estate, Maine, USA
isolationist policy (sakoku) and to open up
This painting depicts the Mississippi, which trade with the West.
was built under the personal supervision of
Commodore Matthew Perry (1794–1858) in Kurofune [Black Ships] became a symbol
1841. She cruised the Mediterranean Sea and of the opening of the country (kaikoku) that
the Ottoman Empire before serving as the would eventually cause the fall of the Edo
flagship for Commodore Perry’s expedition to regime. Mathew B. Brady (1823?–1896)
Japan ordered 1851 by U.S. President Millard † £ 10,000-15,000 Matthew C. Perry (1794–1858), 1856–58
Fillmore (1800–1874). The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New
€ 11,300-16,900 US$ 12,500-18,700
York City, Gilman Collection, Purchase,
Joseph M. Cohen Gift, 2005
NO LOT 120

120 Buyers are liable to pay both the hammer price (as estimated above) and the buyer’s premium together with any applicable taxes and Artist’s Resale Right (which will depend on the individual circumstances).
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