Third Thursday Lecture Series – Collecting and Connoisseurship: A History of Japanese Woodblock Prints

The Japanese woodblock print has held the West under its spell for over a century and a half. Since Commodore Perry returned to the United States bearing the riches of Japanese culture Western tastes and sensibilities have never been the same. One by one the great painters of the day – Degas, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Monet, Whistler and Lautrec all succumbed to the seductive beauty of Japanese prints. By the early 20th century, European connoisseurs of art amassed legendary collections and, later, American art lovers began assembling the portfolios that made the United States the world’s leading center for the collection of Japanese art.

David T. Libertson (W&M ’09, Trustee of the Muscarelle Museum, and president of the Ronin Gallery – the largest collection of Japanese Prints in the USA) will delve into the history of collecting Ukiyo-e.  His lecture will include a survey of Ukiyo-e, Japanese woodblock print connoisseurship and collecting, as well as how to evaluate a print and differentiate a fake from the real thing.