Lot 158: Japanese woman in winter dress; Two Japanese women in a street; and The artist’s wife

Charles Wirgman (1832-1891) Japanese woman in winter dress; Two Japanese women in a street; and The artist’s wife all signed ‘C Wirgman’ (lower right) pencil and watercolour on paper 9 ¾ x 6 5/8in. (24.8 x 16.8cm.) and smaller (3)

24.8 x 16.8cm.

London, Martyn Gregory, From China to the West, 2012-2013, cat. 90, nos.74 and 75 (the first two).

After spending four years in Hong Kong as an illustrator for the Illustrated London News, Wirgman travelled north to Japan in 1861 where he remained 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, he founded the humorous monthly Japan Punch in 1862 and continued to work sporadically for the Illustrated London News until 1887. He died in Yokahama in 1891.