Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1855-1938)
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Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1855-1938)

Kiyohime

Details
Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1855-1938)
Kiyohime
signed 'M Menpes' (lower left)
oil on panel
18 1/8 x 12½in. (46 x 31.7cm.)
Provenance
Andrew Stuart-Robinson, Sydney.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Menpes toured Japan in 1887 and his Japanese studies were subsequently exhibited in the first of series of successful one-man shows at the Dowdeswell Gallery. The present subject illustrates the doomed romance of Anchin and Kiyohome, an ancient Japanese 'dragon' tale in which Anchin, a travelling monk, promises himself to the daughter of his host. Unable to fulfil his promise, he is pursued by Kiyohome and hides in a bell in a Dojiji temple. Kiyohime turns herself variously into a dragon or serpent and melts the bell with her fiery breath, killing them both. For Menpes' impressions of Japan, see his Japan, A Record in Colour, London, 1901, with 100 plates after the artist's Japanese sketches.

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