Emmanuel Tronquois (1855-1918), un pionnier des études sur l'art japonais. Sa Collection de peintures et de livres illustrés d'Edo et de Meiji

Abstract

The French scholar Emmanuel Tronquois is a forgotten pioneer of Japanese studies in France at the end of the 1 9th century. After learning Chinese and Japanese language and literature at the School of Oriental Languages in Paris, he decided to go to Japan to study Japanese ancient art. During his long stay in Japan (1894-1910), Tronquois also encouraged Western-style painters, such as Kuroda Seiki and Kume Keiichirô. Tronquois is still known in Japan as the translator of the first Japanese art history book, Histoire de l'art du Japon {Nihon teikoku bijutsu ryakushî) based on the project of Okakura Tenshin and compiled by the Imperial Museum of Tôkyô under the direction Fukuchi Mataichi, for the Universal International Exhibition held in Paris in 1900. But few people know that Tronquois was also an important collector and connoisseur of paintings, ukiyo-e and illustrated books of Edo and Meiji periods. A part of his collection of premodern Japanese books, one of the most complete in France at this period, was given to the Bibliothèque nationale and to the Bibliothèque des Arts décoratifs in 190/, but the project of a printed catalogue was abandoned at the death of Tronquois in 1918. Since then, nobody had really paid attention to the Tronquois's collection. This paper is an attempt to reconsider the works of Tronquois in the field of Japanese studies and especially Japanese history of art, and to reconstitute his fabulous collection.