Antonio Fontanesi and Modern Japanese Art

Antonio Fontanesi (1818–1882) was a leading Italian landscape painter who is gaining recognition as a seminal figure in establishing modern art in Italy. He trained painters as the Professor of Landscapes at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin. In 1876 he went to Tokyo as the professor of paintings for Kōbu Bijutsu Gakko (Engineering College of Fine Arts, Ministry of Engineering), the first fine arts school in Japan. During his brief two-year tenure, not only did he train many eminent Japanese such as Shōtaro Koyama, Hisashi Matsuoka, and Chū Asai, but his teachings were passed on to the next generation of painters. This presentation will focus on Fontanesi’s teachings, bringing to light an important moment in the development of modern Japanese art.