Utagawa, Yoshikazu (active 1848-1863, artist)
1861
[The European Photographer in Japan with Daguerreotype Camera]

Woodcut
14 7/16 × 9 3/4 in | 36.7 × 24.8 cm
 
Internet - Original source ill-defined
Artsy, Contemporary Works/Vintage Works, Chalfont
 
(Library of Congress description for this print) Print shows a photographer wearing western clothing adjusting a camera beneath a shoud; a woman stands behind him, also wearing western clothing, holding a plate or a photograph, also, photographic supplies are on a small table between them.
 
(Contemporary Works/Vintage Works description)
A beautiful print of this famous engraving depicting a European photographer in action in Japan. The subject reveals that photography was associated with France, as it accompanied the opening of Japan to the outside world from 1859.
 
Sebastian Dobson argues that the photographer represented here is (or is inspired by) Pierre Rossier, a Swiss native active in Japan in 1859-1861. Photographers were extremely rare in Japan at the time. The French photographer Antoine Fauchery had also just arrived in January 1861.
 
Utagawa Yoshikazu produced several prints depicting foreigners in Japan, including Foreigners employing a camera obscura, Americans having tea, Englishmen [man in uniform with a family group], Englishmen [two men in a port], A Dutch group, A French Couple, A Dutch Couple, etc.
 
LL/125199