P.-A. ISAAC: Diplôme de la Société franco-japonaise de Paris - 1912

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Woodcut printed in colors, 440 x 262 mm. IFF 2. Vabre 189.

Very fine impression printed on massa japanese paper. Red stamp with the monogram of Isaac bottom right, Isaac’s swastika bottom left. Inscribed in French in the blank part bottom : « offert à Mr E. Clavery, secrétaire général de la Société en souvenir d’une collaboration Franco-Japonaise » [given to Mr. E. Clavery, secretary-general of the Society, as a souvenir of a French-Japanese collaboration] et « Isaac inv. et xylograp. Urushibara imp », and inscribed in kanjis characters : « Gift given as a souvenir/ Meiji 45 (1912)/ Paris / Urushibara / M. Clavery secretary of the French-Japanese Society. »

In the Annex to the Bulletin de la Société franco-japonaise de Paris (n°XXV, March 1912), this print by P.-A. Isaac is announced and described thus (with a reproduction as illustration) : “The engraving featured here is the reproduction of a colour print, drawn and engraved on wood exclusively for the Society, by our loyal colleague M. P. A. Isaac. The subject matter of this piece, with its highly artistic character, calls to mind the emblem, the model for which is featured on the cover of the Bulletins. This print is made up of 17 different tones, but the dominant colours are : the blue of the cornflowers, the white on the cockerel, the red of the poppies and of the sun's disc, on which the Fujiyama is delineated, thus marrying the national colours of our two countries. The print run is strictly limited to two hundred copies on massa Japanese paper, and undertaken with the collaboration of a Japanese printer, Y. Urushibara. »

Isaac exhibited the Diplôme de la Société franco-japonaise de Paris (Diploma of the Paris French-Japanese Society) at the First Exhibition for Original Wood Print in 1912 at the Pavillon de Marsan. Its dimensions, its large spectrum of colours, its subject matter and technique, along with the fact that Urushibara collaborated to the printing process: all these concur to make this print into a manifesto of French-Japanese artistic collaboration at the beginning of the 20th century. It seems that very few copies still exist.

Édouard Clavery (1867-1949) was the Secretary General of the Société franco-japonaise from 1907 until 1913.

With grateful thanks to Coralie Castel for her translation of the kanjis.