Paul Jacoulet

1902-1960

Beaute Japonaise Moderne (Kobe)

color woodblock print, with artist's watermark of his initials and name in kanji, JP Jaku Rei; elegantly pencil signed at lower right, Paul Jacoulet, with red artist's seal Jaku-rei (in the shape of a mandarin duck), the title in French on attached paper label in the lower margin, Beauté Japonaise Moderne. Kobé, and block carver's seal at lower left, Maeda Kentaro to (Maeda Kentaro), hand-numbered red limited-edition seal on verso, Hyakugoju mai zeppan, dai juschichi ban (150 limited edtion, number 17), published by the artist in September 1935

obaiban tate-e 19 by 14 3/4 in., 48.3 by 37.5 cm

Paris-born Paul Jacoulet spent only the first four years of his life in France. He was not a robust child and would struggle the rest of his life with lingering health problems. His father took a job in Japan shortly after the birth of his frail son, but it would be four years before Paul was strong enough to journey to Tokyo with his mother. He excelled at languages, calligraphy, drawing, painting, and also learned to play the violin as well as the Japanese shamisen. He collected thousands of butterflies (a hobby he continued to pursue as an adult), Japanese and Korean ceramics, and 'golden age' ukiyo-e woodblock prints. His early paintings were based on the ukiyo-e style. As a young man, Jacoulet took a job as a translator at the French Embassy in Tokyo. He loathed his work but devoted his personal time to entertainments, Noh theater, bunraku (puppetry) theater, sumo wrestling, and the company of actors and geisha, all the while neglecting his own art. When the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923 destroyed much of Tokyo, including the houses on either side of his home (which was miraculously untouched), Jacoulet had a realization: he was wasting time that should be spent focused on his art. He resigned from the embassy and embarked on a series of trips in the late 1920s to the South Seas and Korea, filling his notebooks with designs for future paintings.

In June 1934 Jacoulet completed his first print with the influential carver, Yamagishi Kazue (ca. 1893-1966), and henceforward devoted his efforts to meticulous printmaking. After a disappointing experience with the distribution of a group of prints published with Kato Junji (also known as Kato Junzo) in November 1934, Jacoulet became his own publisher, recruiting the well-known carver Maeda Kentaro (active 1934-61) who alternated with Yamagishi for a period before becoming Jacoulet's only carver from the production of this print onward. Jacoulet spared no expense in materials: he had paper hand-made in Kyoto with his watermark and used only natural pigments. He was known for lavish printings, and yet frugally, would only print impressions as they were ordered or that he had already sold to his subscribers. He also employed a complicated numbering system, with different edition sizes in English and Japanese, but in general, and rarely would an edition be completed, and in this case, Miles estimates that less than 100 impressions were produced.

This print is one of only four designs by Jacoulet that feature a woman in modern (Western) clothing, and the only one who was Japanese. The beauty falls within a subset of bijin-ga depicting women displaying the fashions and attributes of moga (shortened from modan garu, 'modern girl'). The elegant palette is uncharacteristically restrained for Jacoulet who tended to revel in exoticism. The stripes on the cushions in the background were hand-applied, and the hue of the red lips were the result of experiments pressing colors from flowers and berries. Miles points out that while this print was not particularly popular in her time (hence the scarcity of impressions), "she is now among the half-dozen most appreciated works." (Miles, p. 95)

Reference:
Richard Miles, The Prints of Paul Jacoulet, 1982, p. 94, illus. p. 49, cat. no. 28
(inv. no. 10-5400)

price: $8,500