Two portraits of Japanese women

After spending four years in Hong Kong as an illustrator for the Illustrated London News, Wirgman travelled north to Japan in 1861 and remained there for the rest of his life, marrying a Japanese woman and witnessing the opening up of the country to westerners at the beginning of the Meiji era. He taught Japanese students to draw and paint in the western manner, founded the humorous monthly Japan Punch in 1862 and worked sporadically for the Illustrated London News until 1887.