The Child and the Umbrella

Mortimer Menpes

1901

Watercolour

Source: Japan, A Record in Colour, facing p. 148

Two of Menpes's favourite themes combined: a Japanese girl holding aloft a Japanese waxed paper umbrella. It almost looks like a halo here, and indeed he saw the children here very idealistically "I have never seen a child in Japan cry; nor have I ever seen one smacked, for what mother can have the heart to touch so dainty a blossom as the child flower of this land of flowers?" (147). — Jacqueline Banerjee

  • A Street in Kioto
  • You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the University of California and the Internet Archive and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]