Charles Wirgman Senior, British 1832-1891- Ten Studies of Japanese figures;...

Charles Wirgman Senior,
British 1832-1891-

Ten Studies of Japanese figures;

each pencil and watercolour on buff wove paper, some heightened with touches of white, nine titled, each 24.5 x 16.4 cm., ten (10), (unframed).

Provenance:
Anon. sale, Bonhams, London, 27 May 1964, lot 46.
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 9 May 2017, lot 106.
Private Collection, UK.

Note:
Subjects include: ‘Betto or groom tattooed a là mode'; ‘a daimio's servant'; ‘a damio’s servant’, 'coolie in daimio's livery'; 'hyakaho or countryman'; 'An "amateur" or blind shampooer'; 'Performing a vow in mid winter'; 'An everyday fight on the Bluff - Itabans fencing’; 'Japanese "Khanglio" or chair’.

The tattooed figure in the present lot appeared in another less finished version by Wirgman which was offered at Bonhams, London, 26 February 2020, lot 70 (part). Wirgman arrived in Japan in 1861 as a correspondent for 'The Illustrated London News', and resided in Yokohama from 1861 until his death. He published the first magazine in Japan, 'The Japan Punch', monthly between 1862 and 1887. Like its British counterpart, the magazine was written in a humorous, often satirical, manner and was illustrated with Wirgman's cartoons.