The Duel of Portraits
These two works were completed at the same time by Regamey and a Japanese painter named Kiosai whom the pair met in Tokyo. As an art collector, Guimet was interested in meeting a Japanese painter, and Regamey, of course, was intrigued by Kiosai’s work.
The meeting started out in a traditional manner, with tea and cake offered for the visitors and friendly introductions made through the translator, but Regamey’s competitiveness led to a cultural clash that produced fascinating results: a portrait duel. Guimet recounts how the Frenchman, trained especially in the arts of caricature, suggested to Kiosai that the two artists complete portraits of one another, to be judged based on both speed of completion and accuracy. They finished at the same time, and Guimet, apparently, was too delighted to pick a winner, congratulating them both on their skills, though he refrains from commenting on the obvious differences between their styles.
The two portraits were included in Promenades Japonaises, but their position reveals their different treatment by Guimet. Kiosai’s depiction of Regamey is just after the title page, almost as an advertisement for the wide variety of art pieces including in the text within (Guimet included many full Japanese prints in the book). As a depiction of a Westerner from Japanese eyes, it was an exotic piece, particularly with the mysterious Japanese writing on the side. Regamey’s sketch is included alongside the text describing the encounter, almost as an image in a scrapbook.
Kiosai is accurate – Regamey is shown sitting as he is described in the text – and portrays Regamey as a real person, a sharp contrast to the paintings of Westerners from the Perry Mission, where the Europeans often looked more like devils than people. As a watercolor, it is clearly traditioanlly-styled Japanese art, but the depth perception of the piece and the careful brushwork on the clothes perhaps shows a new Western influence.
Regamey’s, by contrast, draws heavily on his background in caricature. Regamey chose to draw only Kiosai’s face, a choice that left the man’s garments and pose mostly to the imagination (Guimet claims he sat cross-legged). The aspects of caricature are clear especially in the points of exaggeration: an unrealistically projecting upper lip, deeply wrinkled eyes, and a subtly slanted forehead that was the focus of much misguided scientific discussion in the West at the time.
This portrait of Kiosai is also one of many portraits in the text, which is filled with quick sketches like this one of many different Japanese: young and old, rich and poor, male and female. Most are only of the head, and leave costume, activity, and pose to the imagination. One feels almost as though they are individual images from a gallery depicting a distinct species; Guimet structures these parts of his book almost like an encyclopedia, with factual labels and the context of the observation. Judging the accuracy of these sketches is practically impossible, but their purpose is clear: to provide a sense of the people of Japan as a distinct, almost certainly inferior, race – but one that merits further study and classification.