Watanabe Seitei (Shotei) - Bijutsu Sekai - World of Fine Arts Vol. 1 - 1890

Watanabe Seitei (Shotei) January 18, 1852 – April 2, 1918
Bijutsu Sekai - World of Fine Arts Vol. 1
Watanabe Setaï,
Nagoya ca 1890, Meiji 23
15x24cm
Period: Meiji period (1868–1912)
Verlag: Tokyo : Shun’yōdō

Bijutsu sekai" ("The World of Art"), the famous journal of woodblock prints edited by Watanabe Seitei (Shotei).
Woodblock-printed book; ink and color on mica-coated paper

Picture album series compiled by Seitei WATANABE introducing the works of well known artists in Meiji era and Seitei himself. The series also includes the designs by Edo old masters such as Okyo, Utamaro and Hokusai. These designs were transferred to woodblock prints mostly from paintings. 12 double page and 4 single page illustrations by Seitei, Katei, Eitaku etc. Yoshitoshi's Beauty and Cat, in this volume.

Watanabe Shōtei, was a Japanese Nihonga painter who was one of the first Japanese painters to visit Europe, attending the 1878 International Exhibition in Paris and being awarded a medal.
He blended Western realism with the delicate colours and washes of the Kikuchi Yōsai school, introducing a new approach to kachōga (bird-and-flower painting).

Watanabe Shotei  edited and contributed to the art magazine Bijutsu Sekai (The World of Art), of which the first number was published by Wada Tokutaro in the year Meiji 23 (1890) and printed by Yoshida Ichimatsu with the blockcuts carried out by Goto Tokujiro. Besides Watanabe's illustration and that of Yoshitoshi Kyosai, there were ten other artists who contributed.