Mortimer Menpes - Australian orientalist

Another Australian Orientalist, Mortimer Menpes (1855-1938) whose work I like very much. Menpes was born in Port Adelaide and began his art training in South Australian art schools. Like many other artists, though, he realised there is was no great future for him Downunder so he completed his training in Britain. After this, he toured Europe and made copies of European masters, such as this copy of Bellini's 'Doge of Venice':

Later in his life, Menpes donated these excellent copies to the National Gallery of Australia which is where they still reside. They were intended to form the nucleus of the national collection of the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia. In Britain, he became a student of the British-based American James Whistler. Here is a great sketch he made of the American:

Menpes also went to India and the Middle East. Here is a picture entitled 'Kashmiri Girl with Hookah':

But the main claim Menpes has to fame is that he journeyed to Japan in 1887 - one of the very few Europeans at that time to do so - and produced a large number of pictures there which were published in travel books. (I printed out one of his books on Japan today - all 600 pages of it! Fascinating.) He also had the rare distinction of studying under a Japanese master, the painter and printmaker Kyosai. Here are some of his watercolours from Japan: