was a Japanese artist. He is also sometimes known as Yamamoto Tamenosuke.

Biography

He was born in

Mino Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today southern Gifu Prefecture. Mino was bordered by Ōmi to the west, Echizen and Hida to the north, Shinano to the east, and Ise, Mikawa, and Owari to the south. Its abbreviated fo ...

. He first trained in the Nanga (Bunjinga) style before studying Western painting with

Charles Wirgman Charles Wirgman (31 August 1832 - 8 February 1891) was an English artist, caricaturist and editorial cartoonist, the creator of the '' Japan Punch'' and illustrator in China and Meiji period-Japan for the '' Illustrated London News''. Wirgman w ...

and Goseda Horyu (1827–92) and under

Antonio Fontanesi Antonio Fontanesi (23 February 1818 – 17 April 1882) was an Italian painter who lived in Meiji period Japan between 1876 and 1878. He introduced European oil painting techniques to Japan, and exerted a significant role in the development of mo ...

. Yamamoto then went to Paris, where he remained for over ten years and studied at the school of Fine Arts as Gérôme’s student 1878-1887. While in Paris he mixed with the city's artists and intelligentsia, and he supplied work for the illustrated edition of

Robert de Montesquiou The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, reno ...

's ''Les chauves-souris''. Returning to Japan he opened a painting academy, the Seikokan, in

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

, teaching the French style of the Barbizon school. This was later renamed the Tenshin Dojo after his friend and fellow-artist

Kuroda Seiki Viscount was a Japanese painter and teacher, noted for bringing Western art theory and practice to a wide Japanese audience. He was among the leaders of the ''yōga'' (or Western-style) movement in late 19th and early 20th-century Japanese pai ...

returned to Japan and joined him in teaching there, introducing the techniques of

plein-air ''En plein air'' (; French language, French for 'outdoors'), or plein-air painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein ai ...

painting. Among his works are ''Junishi'' (1892), a cycle of twelve oil paintings in the Western style based on the theme of the signs of the

Chinese zodiac The Chinese zodiac is a traditional classification scheme based on the Chinese calendar that assigns an animal and its reputed attributes to each year in a repeating twelve-year (or duodenary) cycle. The zodiac is very important in traditional ...

(ten of which are extant).
''Junishi'' (Urashima; Mi)

Gallery

File:Seiyō fujin-zō by Yamamoto Hōsui.jpg, portrait of

Judith Gautier Judith Gautier (25 August 1845, Paris – 26 December 1917) was a French poet, translator and historical novelist, the daughter of Théophile Gautier and Ernesta Grisi, sister of the noted singer and ballet dancer Carlotta Grisi. She was m ...

File:Rafu by Yamamoto Hōsui.jpg, Painting of female nude File:Urashima-zu by Yamamoto Hōsui 02.jpg, '' Urashima-zu'' File:Tomoshibi o motsu otome by Yamamoto Hōsui.jpg, ''Young girl having a candle''

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yamamoto, Hosui 1850 births 1906 deaths Artists from Gifu Prefecture Yōga painters 19th-century Japanese painters