Currently not on view
Battersea Bridge,
ca. 1930 [Shōwa 5]
Information
ca. 1930 [Shōwa 5]
Europe, England, London
Makino Yoshio was a Japanese artist and author who spent much of his life in London. Like James Whistler, Makino was fascinated by the scenery of the “city of fog.” This print—an atmospheric view of the Battersea Bridge at dusk—is a direct homage Makino paid to Whistler.
At the age of twenty-four, Makino took ship at Yokohama and went to San Francisco, where he enrolled at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art and stayed in the city for the next four years. In 1897, he went to London via New York, and decided to stay in London where he spent most of his subsequent life and career. He was well received among British writers and artists, and his illustrations of the city published in 1907 in The Color of London got critical acclaim. This was followed by in 1908 by The Color of Paris and The Color of Rome, and in 1912 by The Charm of London.
Makino's literary talents were also recognized, and with the support of friends like Douglas Sladen he published several autobiographical works, including A Japanese Artist in London (1910), When I was a Child (1912), and My Recollections and Reflections (1913).
