The Japanese artist Yoshio Markino enjoyed a successful career in early twentieth century London as an artist and author. This book examines his uniquely Asian perspective on British society and ...culture at a time when Japan eagerly sought engagement with the West.
Diplomat DeWitt Clinton Poole arrived for a new job at the United States consulate office in Moscow in September 1917, just two months before the Bolshevik Revolution. In the final year of World War ...I, as Russians were withdrawing and Americans were joining the war, Poole found himself in the midst of political turmoil in Russia. U.S. relations with the newly declared Soviet Union rapidly deteriorated as civil war erupted and as Allied forces intervened in northern Russia and Siberia. Thirty-five years later, in the climate of the Cold War, Poole recounted his experiences as a witness to that era in a series of interviews. Historians Lorraine M. Lees and William S. Rodner introduce and annotate Poole's recollections, which give a fresh, firsthand perspective on monumental events in world history and reveal the important impact DeWitt Clinton Poole (1885–1952) had on U.S.–Soviet relations. He was active in implementing U.S. policy, negotiating with the Bolshevik authorities, and supervising American intelligence operations that gathered information about conditions throughout Russia, especially monitoring anti-Bolshevik elements and areas of German influence. Departing Moscow in late 1918 via Petrograd, he was assigned to the port of Archangel, then occupied by Allied and American forces, and left Russia in June 1919.
Discusses depiction of London by the Japanese artist, Yoshio Markino, and his relationship with the illustrated press. The author chronicles Markino's arrival in London and his early training, ...reports that by 1908 and 1909 he had contributed visual material for elegant travel books on Paris and Rome, supplied 48 colour illustrations for Colour of London (1907), and in 1910 published an autobiography A Japanese Artist in London, argues that his success originated in Markino's work as an artist for the Edwardian illustrated press, and states that his career benefited from the contemporary appreciation of Japanese civilization and culture. He makes reference to four illustrations of London published in The King, under the title Impressions of London by a Japanese Artist (1905; illus.), maintains that there was little that was demonstrably Asian in these views, and suggests that the illustration A Street Artist at St Martin-in-the Fields Church (1902; illus.) is more Japanese. He asserts that a set of images published by Markino in The Studio including A London Street (1901; illus.), Pit Entrance of Her Majesty's Theatre (1901; illus.), and Sketch at Earl's Court (1901; illus.) was even more Japanese, notes that The Studio was directed by Charles Home, a passionate advocate of Japanese culture, and comments on the discussion of Markino and his work that accompanied the illustrations. He describes Sketch at Earl's Court, reports that The Studio found the mixture of east and west in Markino's work obvious and noteworthy, and states that professionally and personally Markino wanted to fit into British life. He focuses on Markino's relationship with Marion Spielmann who had edited The Magazine of Art, highlights the condescending terminology that critics used to describe Markino's art, and describes the illustration Evening in Trafalgar Square, London (1903; illus.). He reports that Spielmann gave Markino the opportunity to work in colour, asserts that the colours of Marylebone Church (1903; illus.) gave a new vitality to Markino's work, and makes reference to the illustrations England seen with Japanese Eyes: Church Parade (1903; col. illus.) and Autumn (1904; col. illus.). He suggests that Autumn laid the groundwork for Markino's transition from periodicals to illustrated books, reports that the Colour of London (London; Chatto and Windus; 1906) had an introduction by Spielmann, details a number of other books published by Markino and concludes that he found the British public increasingly receptive to his work, especially when it showed them the beauty of their persistent fogs for example in Hyde Park Corner (1910; col. illus.) and Chelsea Embankment (1910; col. illus.).
The year 1851 witnessed the Great Exhibition, Britain's celebration of technological achievement. Thousands of curious and excited visitors from the world over flocked to Joseph Paxton's futuristic ...Crystal Palace to marvel at the various exhibits which underscored, not only Britain's commercial and industrial preeminence, but also the Victorian faith in progress and the triumph of the machine.
Less noticed, late that same year, was the passing of one of the most perceptive observers of the new age, the veteran artist J.M.W. Turner. This great English Romantic, famed for his paintings of bucolic landscapes, storms at sea, and Alpine avalanches, also had drawn significant inspiration from the new forces which were then rapidly transforming Britain and the world. A notable body of his work, particularly the efforts of his later career, exist as complex visual commentaries on the reality and the meaning of nineteenth century industrialism. Watercolors of blackened mills, polluted skies, and steam locomotion capture the face of change, while great oils such as
The Fighting Temeraire
and
Snow Storm—Steam–Boat off a Harbour's Mouth
symbolize a dynamic new age.
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