Tokyo National Museum's 140th Anniversary Thematic Exhibitions: Western Paintings from Glasgow: International Exchange in the Early Years of the Museum (1)

In the early Meiji era, the Museum Bureau, the forerunner of Tokyo National Museum, took part in the government policies of fostering industries through domestic and international expositions. Through these activities, many goods, specimens, and artworks from across Japan and the world were gathered. This exhibition introduces an international exchange project with Glasgow Museum (present-day Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow Museums, UK), with paintings and prints gifted from Glasgow in 1880 (Meiji 13), to present a view of the museum in its role in Japan's modern history.

The exhibited works were given in return for industrial samples sent from Japan in 1878 (Meiji 11), including examples of Japanese modern decorative arts. The chromolithographs were among industrial samples sent from Glasgow, and the oil paintings accompanied them. Chromolithography is a type of planographic printing, the origin of today's offset printing, which was also used in Japan for printing bank notes at the time.

The oil paintings were originally among the collections of entrepreneurs from Glasgow. Among them, the landscape paintings reflect the tastes in collecting during the late 18th to the 19th century, when Dutch landscape paintings from the 17th century and ideal landscapes by the French painter Claude Lorrain were especially favored. Paintings with Scottish and British themes were also included in the gift. These paintings are now being studied in a joint research project with the oil painting conservation section of the Tokyo University of the Arts.

For this exhibition, some picture frames were restored using 159,830 yen donated through the museum's donation boxes. We sincerely thank all our visitors for this kind support.