View of Yamate Nakamura from a Park on the Reclaimed Ground in Yokohama 

Goseda Yoshimatsu was born in Edo (present-day Tokyo) as the second son of artist Goseda Horyu. At around the age of 12, and at the recommendation of his father, he became a disciple of the English painter Charles Wirgman, who lived in the foreign settlement of Yokohama. Studying with Wirgman, he spent the final years of the Edo Period learning oil painting, watercolor, and pencil drawing. In around 1868 he moved to Yokohama, where he quickly acquired a reputation for his painting. In 1880, he became one of the first Japanese artists to travel to Paris, choosing to study painting in earnest at Léon Bonnat’s school.
Depicted in the foreground here is the reclaimed land where the construction of a park (present-day Yokohama Park) is progressing on the ruins of a red-light district that had been destroyed in a large fire. Beyond this, a panoramic view including Ishikawa Nakamura in Yamate is depicted beyond the Haooka River. The work showcases a precocious talent who, at the age of 18, could adroitly capture landscapes in watercolor.
(KASHIWAGI Tomoh)