概要 / description

明治から昭和初期にかけて活躍した洋画家川村清雄（かわむらきよお　1852～1934）と、川村家が代々伝えてきた江戸後期から昭和初期までのおよそ200年にわたる約6000点の資料群。家文書の他、清雄の留学時代資料や作品下絵が多数含まれる。川村家は御庭番(おにわばん)家筋の旗本で、清雄の祖父川村修就（ながたか）は、初代新潟奉行などの遠国奉行を歴任した。清雄は静岡へ移住した徳川宗家16代当主徳川家達（いえさと）に仕え、徳川家給費留学生として渡米、その後仏・伊で洋画を学んだ。帰国後は明治美術会の設立に加わったが、やがて独自の道を歩み日本独自の油絵世界を追究した。代表作に《振天府（しんてんふ）》（聖徳記念絵画館所蔵）・《建国》（仏・オルセー美術館所蔵）がある。また、最大の庇護者であった勝海舟をモチーフにした《江戸城明渡の帰途》（当館所蔵）《形見の直垂》（東京国立博物館所蔵）が有名。川村家資料のうち、江戸期の資料は新潟市歴史博物館に寄贈され、清雄を中心とする明治以降の資料が当館に収蔵されている。

A material group consisting of some 6,000 items, including materials on Kawamura Kiyo’o (1852–1934), a Western painting artist who found success during the Meiji era and the early Shōwa era, and materials that were handed down by the Kawamura family from generation to generation for around 200 years, from the late Edo period to the early Shōwa era. In addition to the family documents, a lot of materials during Kiyo’o’s studying abroad and draft drawings are included. The Kawamura family were hatamoto retainers who served as oniwaban (a secret detective for the shogunate) and Kiyo’o’s grandfather, Kawamura Nagataka, served successively as ongoku bugyō (a magistrate placed at important territories directly ruled by the shogunate) including the first magistrate in Niigata. Kiyo’o served Tokugawa Iesato, the sixteenth head of the Tokugawa family, who migrated to Shizuoka, and went to the United States as an international student funded by the Tokugawa family and subsequently studied Western painting in France and Italy. After returning to Japan, he participated in the establishment of the Meiji Bijutsukai art association but eventually took his own way and pursued the world of oil painting unique to Japan. His representative works include “Shintenfu Repository” (owned by the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery) and “Founding of the Nation” (owned by the Orsay Museum in France). Also famous are “Edojō Akewatashi no Kito (On His Return from the Surrender of Edo Castle)” (owned by the Edo-Tokyo Museum) and “Garment as a Memento” (owned by the Tokyo National Museum), which depict Kiyo’o’s most prominent patron, Katsu Kaishū, as a motif. Of the Kawamura family’s materials, those in the Edo period were donated to the Niigata City History Museum, while those relating mainly to Kiyo’o from the Meiji era onward are housed in the Edo-Tokyo Museum.