King of Sweden, Oscar Ⅱ (Portraits of the Sovereigns of the Treaty Powers)

King of Sweden, Oscar Ⅱ (Portraits of the Sovereigns of the Treaty Powers)

King of Sweden, Oscar Ⅱ (Portraits of the Sovereigns of the Treaty Powers)

These pictures were planned with the intention to construct a Universal Palace room in the Palace by displaying a pair of portraits of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, arranging portraits of the fourteen sovereigns of countries which Japan concluded treaties with then around them. First, Ugolini from Milano, extolled as the best portrait painter in Italy in the 19th century, was commissioned to paint them, and the completed series of fourteen pictures were accepted to the Court in 1875. Later, the President of America and the King of Italy were changed. San Giovanni, who was invited to Japan afterward as a teacher of Kobu Bijutsu Gakko (Art School Attached to the Technical College) was commissioned to paint the paintings for replacement in 1878. They are precious works as examples of the regard towards Italy in the Japanese art world of the early Meiji era. Among them, the fifteen by Ugolini except the portrait of the president of America are in our collection.（「New Edition　Grace, Beauty and Inqenuity-Masterpices of the Museum of Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan　Vol.2」2003）