Bristol’s Japanese prints

‘MASTERS of Japanese prints: Life in the City’ is the second in a series of three exhibitions of items from the Museum’s collection of Japanese woodblock prints.

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery has around 500 ‘floating world pictures’ ukiyo-e which celebrate the pleasures of life in Japan and is one of the finest collections in Britain.

While it would be nice to think that they were acquired by some eccentric Victorian adventurer from Bristol, they were mostly acquired between the 1940s and 60s by the Museum’s arts curator – later Museum Director – Hans Schubart.

Schubart wanted Bristol to have a world-class art collection and felt it was essential that we should have some examples of Japanese wood-block prints. He admired “their great subtleties of colour, delicacy of line and elegance of composition.”

In the 1940s, Japanese prints were quite easy to acquire; there were many of them in Britain, often bought by wealthy Brits during the craze for everything Japanese in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Schubart built the collection with expert advice from collectors and curators. He acquired 130 prints in one go in 1949 when the contents of the home of the late Professor Hiatt C. Baker, former Pro-Chancellor of the University in Bristol were sold.

By the 1960s prices for Japanese prints had become much higher but Hans Schubart continued his quest, often with the help of funds from government grants, the Friends of Bristol Art Gallery and even – unthinkable nowadays! – money from Bristol City Council.

A third exhibition ‘Masters of Japanese prints: Nature and Seasons’ opens at the Museum in May, shortly after the current show closes.