Ahura

《林玉山作品捐贈特展》，國立台灣美術館，2019。

Curator / Hsueh Yen-Ling

3. The Connection between Lin's Sketches from Nature and Japanese Modern Paintings 

To infuse the "sketch-based" principle from Japanese painting into his lifelong artistic creation, Lin tended to select his objects from his immediate surroundings and life experiences, which implies that he could paint almost all what he saw. He would draw sketches from nature as long as situations allowed, whether on ordinary days or trips. Lin developed this creative philosophy under the substantial influence of the Kawabata Painting School, an arts educational institute that followed the style and pedagogy of the Maruyama-Shijō school founded by Maruyama Ökyo (圓山應舉), after whom the philosophy of "sketch from nature as the foundation for nihonga" has been systematically perpetuated for more than two centuries. According to Japanese scholar Kono Motoaki (河野元昭), the term "sketching from nature" had been used in China and ancient Japan prior to the Edo period, referring to "depicting the objects' sheer vitality," setting great store by reflecting the objects' inner life force rather than lending visual verisimilitude. In the Edo period, "sketching from nature" became a portmanteau concept, covering Chinese freehand style and Western realism, underlining the representation of the physical world in a realistic manner. The so-called "era of realistic sketch" epitomized the fine arts development in the Edo period. Maruyama offered faithful representation in a broad sense achieved by objective, realistic techniques, and relied heavily on occidental painting skills. The objects he depicted were not so much majestic landscapes in China as historical sites and scenic spots in the outskirts of Kyoto, people enjoying the cool air in Shijō Kawaramachi, and puppies frolicking beside morning glory. Inspired by ordinary people's lives and emotions, Maruyama's oeuvre exhibited a simple, reality-based perspective of nature. Several terms such as "realism," "sketching. from nature," and "portrait" that carried similar meanings to their contemporary counterparts. began to emerge in the Japanese painting scene in the late 1880s. Museikai (無聲會), a naturalism-oriented nihonga group, was formed in 1900. Its iconic figures included Kawabata's disciples Yuki Somei, Hirafuku Hyakusui (平福百穗, 1877-1933), and Fukui Koutei (福井江亭, 1866-1937), as well as yōga painter Ishii Hakutei (石井柏亭). They placed great emphasis not only on everything in their everyday life but also on realistic representation of what they experienced. They also espoused the creative philosophy of the unification of finished paintings and sketches from nature, or, to put it another way, sketches from nature as finished paintings. Such a creative philosophy that extracts painting elements from life experiences was quite enlightening for Lin's selection of subjects and the connection between his daily sketch practice and his artistic creation. He expanded the philosophy further, utilizing media of all stripes such as watercolor, pastel, gouache, ink, and sumi apart from pencil in his works. The majority of his sketch drafts were little less than finished works that can be construed as simple artistic creation, hence closer ties between his sketches from nature and his enchanting paintings. 

Takeuchi Seiho (竹內栖鳳, 1864-1942) was another figure of the Shijō school who had direct influence on Lin's art. The sketch draft Deer in imitation of Seiho's and Ogata Kōrin's works was also contained in Lin's sketchbook titled "Collected Works of 1923." Dōmoto Inshō, Lin's mentor in Kyoto in 1935, sat at the feet of Nishiyama Suishō (西山翠璋, 1879-1958) who was Seiho's disciple and son-in-law. They all followed the sketch-based painting style of the Maruyama-Shijō school. In 1900, Seihō set out on a seven-month journey on the continent of Europe, where he not only learned the styles adopted by Camille Corot (1796-1875) and J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851), but also became aware of the necessity of combining Western skills of sketching from nature. Therefore, he employed techniques of watercolor, oil painting, and photography as well as Western presentation of light, air, and three-dimensional appeal in his works. In 1901, two months after returning from Europe to Japan, Seiho presented his work Lion at the 7th Modern and Traditional Art Exhibition in Kyoto. This work exhibited a refreshing style distinct from that of his tiger paintings mentored by Kishi Chikudo (岸 竹堂, 1826- 1897), showing the powerful, fearsome beast commonly seen in Western sketches from nature. Besides, his work Deer (1907, a pair of six-fold screens collected by the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo) bore the signature of occidental painting style without compromising the refined and elegant nature of nihonga. At the 2nd Art Exhibition of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture in 1908, Seiho's work Domesticated Monkey and Rabbit vividly represented the specific habits and properties of these animals. The sparrows and ducks in his paintings looked so quick- witted, and their feathers as bright and beautiful as lifelike. Lin's paintings also reflected the impact of Seihō. For instance, Lin often tackled the subjects of deer, sparrow, and monkey as Seihō did. His concerns for natural ecology and philosophical implications were also manifested in his sketches from nature. The work Pines and Deers (1995) that Lin painted at the age of 89 can be deemed as the chef-d' oeuvre of his deer paintings. An old pine tree stretches across the composition, serving as a foil to the two graceful deer looking into distance on the grassland. It is a masterpiece characterized by bold composition and skillful brushstrokes, immersing the viewers in a calm and tranquil atmosphere. Besides, his painting of monkeys on a maple tree carries the implication of "earning the title of duke." 

Sketches from nature created by painters on trips may serve as recordings of their experiences on the one hand, and a source of inspiration for their creations on the other. Emerging in the Edo period, Japanese modern sketches from landscape were inextricably related to the modernized domestic travel that became popular in the late Edo period. As the public transportation infrastructure improved, travel gradually became a prevailing form of recreation. Tourist attractions were widely known. Travel logs and maps were extensively published. Meisho-e (名所繪, painting of scenic spot) thus effloresced due to such a societal development. The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaido (東海道), a series of Utagawa Hiroshige's ukiyo-e (lit. painting of the floating world) depicting the 53 different post stations from Edo (now Tokyo) to Kyoto, was published by Hōeidō (保永堂) in 1834 and received glowing praise and favorable criticism. Travel was thenceforth inseparably linked with meisho-e. 25 In 1887, sketching on trip was popularized with the efflorescence of watercolor. In 1896, some members of Hakubakai such as Kuroda Seiki (黑田清輝, 1866-1924) and Kume Keiichiro (久米桂一郎, 1866-1934) began to travel frequently for sketching from nature. In 1905, around 200 students from the Tokyo Fine Arts School went on their graduation and sketching trip to Ikaho (衣香保), Mount Haruna (榛名山), and Mount Myōgi (妙義山). The trip was led by their professors, including Seiki, Keiichiro, Wada Eisaku (和田英作, 1874-1959), Okada Saburōsuke (岡田三郎助, 1869-1939), and Terasaki Kōgyō (寺崎廣業, 1866-1919). It suggested that sketching on trips had been prevalent among painters in the early 1900s. In Lin's sketchbooks, there is no lack of sketches from landscape. They are nothing short of the documents of Lin's observations and realizations on his trips. Most of his sketches from landscape drawn in the 1920s and 1930s tackled the subjects of rural scenes and mountain views near his hometown, which might be a result of the inadequate accommodation and transportation services as well as the Taiwan Art Exhibition that advocated presenting the Taiwanese "local flavor" at that time. The most conclusive proof of the link between Lin's sketching from nature and his excursion or hiking was found in a sketch. from nature (1935) by Lee Chiu-He (李秋禾) that portrayed Lin in hiking gear. Lin and Lee went to Mount Beak on the common border of Wufeng Township (五峰, Hsinchu County) and Nanzhuang Township (南庄, Miaoli County) for sketching from. nature. The sketches Lin drew with pencil, ink and color on site demonstrated his mastery of composition, line, and coloring. On 17 August 1965, Lin led a group of students from the National Taiwan Normal University to Swallow Grotto on the Central Cross-Island Highway for sketching from nature.28 He also traveled to Canada, Washington, D.C., and New York. His sketchbook of a European tour in 1980 contains a quick sketch of snow-covered Titlis drawn during the flight from Paris to Rome. Humbled by the breathtaking scenery, Lin was so excited that he wrote down the words "a spectacular snowscape" on the sketch. He even created several sketches of Titlis in different cities that afford a view of this mountain on his journey. This sketchbook also contains many other works, such as The Lion Monument Rock Relief in Lucerne Switzerland, Scenery along the Rhine, The Little Mermaid Statue in Copenhagen, Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and Streetscape in Paris, Streets around the Plaza de la Armería, Corrida de toros, and The Bronze Lions at the Victoria Memorial in front of the Buckingham Palace. These works served as a complete record of his visits to the tourist attractions in different European countries between 29 July and 19 August 1980. The last few pages of this sketchbook were his sketches of the Zengwen Reservoir in Chiayi drawn in 1981. He went to Bali and India in 1983, and revisited Bali in 1987 where he sketched the Barong dance and Indonesian palace dance. He visited Nagashima, Japan in 1990, and the West Lake in Hangzhou, China in 1991 for sketching from nature. In addition to the sketches drawn during his overseas travel, Lin created a large number of sketches from landscapes around Taiwan, and many of them were transformed into new works with gouache as well as ink and color, which exemplified Lin's creative philosophy of connecting sketching on trip with his painting practice. The landscape paintings Lin created in his twilight years were no longer mere representations of what he saw, but stimulating works in a quite modern style that featured subjective, bold and kaleidoscopic coloring, foregrounding the majestic grandeur of magnificent landscapes with an ingenious mix of various media (e.g. ink and color, gouache, and glue-based golden paint) and techniques. 

4. Conclusions 

Lin went to Tokyo in 1926 and Kyoto in 1935 (i.e. during the Taishō Era and the early Shōwa period) for artistic training when a free and democratic atmosphere pervaded the Japanese society after its westernization. What Lin learned at the Kawabata Painting School might be simply the basics of painting, yet its pedagogic system operated in a westernized spirit, and the Maruyama-Shijō school' s emphasis on sketch-based training further reflected the influence of Western modern arts education. More specific, it broke away from the absolute imitation and the rigid demarcation among existing schools, techniques and styles underscored by Japanese traditional private arts education. The precious experience Lin gained from the Kawabata Painting School had a profound and enduring influence on his subsequent works. Being part of the artistic mainstream, the naturalism led by Tokyo-based master Yuki Somei underlined the concept of sketching from nature and embraced the creative philosophy of transforming and representing real-life experiences. The Kyoto-based genealogy from Takeuchi Seiho via Nishiyama Suishō to Dōmoto Insho touched upon subjects, schools and skills of all stripes, applying them in nanga (Southern Painting) and elaborate-style painting with saturated colors. These Japanese master painters served as a fertile source of inspiration for Lin's paintings that conveyed the Taiwanese local flavor. The meaning of "sketching from nature" for Lin was threefold. It should represent the natural world, faithfully and objectively depict the objects, and meanwhile visualize the sheer vitality of nature and the inner liveliness of the objects. "Sketching from nature" not only formed the core of Lin's long and prolific career as a painter, but also broadened his horizons that evolved into his sui generis painting style. In the end, his oeuvre. enriched and bore testimony to the historical development of Taiwanese fine arts from the Japanese colonial period to the post-war era.