. Japan, a record in colour . in the design of the frame and the placingof the picture within it. Although the matter was notin itself of any remarkable importance, I hold that itfairly proves the artistic temperament of a chanceselection of people. Think of a common carpentermaking a simple thing and taking a just pride indoing it! The result was that I got one of the mostbeautiful frames you can conceive, and that I wasencouraged in my own work by the sympathy of theseworkmen. Of course, in Japan there are painters who paintfor the market—people who have been destroyed bythe British merchant
. Japan, a record in colour . in the design of the frame and the placingof the picture within it. Although the matter was notin itself of any remarkable importance, I hold that itfairly proves the artistic temperament of a chanceselection of people. Think of a common carpentermaking a simple thing and taking a just pride indoing it! The result was that I got one of the mostbeautiful frames you can conceive, and that I wasencouraged in my own work by the sympathy of theseworkmen. Of course, in Japan there are painters who paintfor the market—people who have been destroyed bythe British merchant and the American trader. Theyspend their time in painting pictures of flowers andbirds in vivid colourings that appeal to our tastes, solelyfor exportation to England and America. Apropos ofthis I must mention a conversation I had with a painterabout screens, which struck me as being very wanted to buy a gold screen, and he took me to ashop where I saw a vast number of screens, nearly all 36 THE SCARLET UMBRELLA. I The Living Art with black grounds and golden birds and fish on told him I did not like them ; and he answered, Neither do we. Here in Japan we would not havethem in our houses ; but they are what the Englishand American markets demand. We ourselves neverbuy them ; we nearly always choose screens with lightgrounds, beautifully painted —in fact, splendid piecesof decoration. A screen painted by a first-class artistis valued very highly, while the fact of one from thehand of an old Japanese master being for disposal isknown all over the country at once, and everybody isprepared to bid for it as one would bid for a Sir Joshuahere. A really good screen fetches an enormous price,for it takes the place there of pictures and frescoes withus, and every man of taste requires one or two finespecimens in his house beautiful. One I saw at thehouse of the Minister for Foreign Affairs was paintedwith a blue wave—an arrangement, in fact, in blue andgold. I ne
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectart, bookyear1901
