11Story

22 January 2010

Portrait of Kitagawa

 

[Purported] Portrait of Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806). [Purportedly by] Chobunsai Eishi (1756-1829) Japan, 19th century Photograph. Original painting, hanging scroll, ink and pigment on silk, inscribed, sealed. 33 x 39.8 cm © Trustees of the British Museum 1913, 0501, 0.402

This portrait purportedly of one celebrated Japanese artist by another has set the cat among the pigeons. There may never be a ‘last word’ to settle this Rumsfeldian uncertainty of known and unknown unknowns but it is at least clear that the role of the subject is that of an artist, and that an artist has produced it, even if in uncharitable or caricatured forms, and not inconceivably invented. It can be awkward when person and role dissociate, especially when it is unclear that they have done so. Is it even possible, however, knowing that the image is controversial, to see it and appreciate it as if it were not? Confronted with this image, do specialists and non-specialists see the same thing, and, if not, how and why might their impressions differ? Above all, why is it so unnerving (at least to some) when there is no certainty about the subject of a portrait or even whether there was a subject at all?

 
 
 

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