Matsukata Collection
松方コレクション
The art Matsukata Kōjirō bought in Europe from 1916; the part France returned to Japan in 1959 became the foundation of the National Museum of Western Art.
01About
Matsukata Kōjirō, third son of the Meiji statesman Matsukata Masayoshi, became the first president of Kawasaki Shipbuilding in 1896. After shipbuilding brought him large profits during the First World War, he travelled often to Europe for about ten years from 1916, buying works from galleries. Some 400 works left in Paris were placed under French state control as enemy property at the end of the Second World War; France later decided, for Franco-Japanese friendship, to return most of them to Japan as a gift, and the National Museum of Western Art was founded in 1959 to receive and show them. Renoir's Woman with a Hat, for example, was bought by Matsukata from Galerie Durand-Ruel in 1921, sequestered by the French government in 1944, and transferred to the Japanese government in 1959.
02In the gallery
When you read a label, look for where the work came from and the year it entered the museum.
Wall label terms in Japanese
- 松方コレクション
- Matsukata Collection
- 寄贈返還
- Returned as a gift
- 来歴
- Provenance
03Notes
What picture of European art did one collector's choices leave here?