“A Sign-Painter's" by Mortimer Menpes, R. I., from “Japan, A Record in Colour” by Dorothy Menpes

A Sign-Painter's

Mortimer Menpes

1901

Watercolour

Source: Japan, A Record in Colour, facing p. 178

As usual, Menpes found Japanese painters in general considerably better than the English ones, with whom he had "a great deal of trouble" on his return (196). Having educated a foreman and one of the men to apply the colour exactly as he wanted, he feared that he had unfitted these English workmen for future work. Differences in tools, methods, materials and of course style, were all striking. [Commentary continues below.]

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With signs, there was another factor — their careful placing, which appealed hugely to Menpes's aesthetic sensibility. He loved to see the consideration given to their exact positioning:

You will often see a family collected on the opposite side of the road watching their father place a signboard in front of his shop. It might be a grocer’s shop, and all — even to the mite strapped to the back of its sister — are eagerly watching the moving about of this board, and are interested to see that it should place itself well in relation to the broad masses around, such as the tea-box, etc. [80]

When he first arrived in Japan, Menpes says, he wanted to sketch "every pole and signboard that I came across; and the result of this glut of subjects was that I never painted a stroke" (99). The artist's eye sees beauty and order in sights that many would never even glance at. The children in front of this shop seem curious about the strange foreigner sketching it (and them!). They give the scene extra interest: another case of good positioning, of which the artist has quickly taken advantage. — Jacqueline Banerjee

Bibliography

Menpes, Dorothy. Japan: A Record in Colour. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1901. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of California Libraries. Web. 6 July 2019.

Created 6 July 2019