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Fongyuan Historical Trail

Tags: art | Ishikawa Kinichiro | painting

Ishikawa Kinichiro (1871–1945), 1926

Watercolor painting, 30 x 39.3 cm

A native of Shizuoka, Japan, Ishikawa Kinichiro learned Southern painting and Japanese painting at school. When he was 28 years old, Ishikawa went to Britain to study watercolor painting and developed the skill of using transparent watercolors. At the age of 36, he was dispatched to Taiwan to serve as a teacher in Taipei Normal School where he planted the root of art movement in Taiwan. His students included Taiwan's early artists such as Chen Cheng-Bo, Liao Ji-Chun, Chen Zhi-Chi and Lee Mei-Shu. Fongyuan Historical Trail is Kinichiro's 1926 work, painted when he was 55. Rural scenery is a common subject of his work. In this painting, Ishikawa applied precise and fluid brushstrokes and light and bright colors to bring about the delightful tropical scenery of Taiwan: sunny sky, golden rice fields, Taiwan acacia trees, Temple of Land Deity, and hard-working farmer shouldering heavy loads. Ishikawa led many artists to produce sketches of rural Taiwan, leaving not only precious images from that period of time but also laying a cornerstone for fine art education in Taiwan.

Department of Graphic Communications and Digital Publishing, Shih Hsin University Digital archiving project of the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines

Original Chinese text is composed by Professor Cheng-Ming Su, Department of Visual Arts, Taipei Municipal University of Education