Centennial Memoria : Exhibition of Paul Renouard in the Collection of Hayashi Tadamasa

HAYASHI Tadamasa (1953-1906), who had been active as Japanese art dealer in Meiji Period, is one of the most important persons when considering not only the development of Japonism in Europe, but also the history of Japanese art and art crafts in the late 19th century. While introducing Japanese art to the West, Hayashi tried to exhibit western paintings in order to introduce the skill of true representation of nature to the Japanese art world. Charles Paul Renouard (1845-1924), one of the most successful painters and illustrators, was working for the most popular periodicals such as "Illustration" and "Paris Illustree". Hayashi organized an exhibition of prints and drawings by Paul Renouard in 1894 in Paris, and he referred to a dream to show these works in the museum of modern Western arts to be built in Japan. To convey his intentions, the Hayashi family donated the works in this exhibition to the Tokyo National Museum (TNM). For Hayashi's Centennial, the TNM will exhibit the works by Renouard in his collection, which is rare in the world in both the number of works and their quality. We would be happy if Hayashi's dream and message about Japanese art would be reinvigorated in this occasion.