Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Nottingham
Entre art et science: la représentation des autochtones dans les 'Promenades japonaises' d’Émile Guimet et Félix Régamey
This article examines the travel account written by Emile Guimet and illustrated by the artist Félix Régamey, Promenades japonaises, published in 1878 and 1880, as an amateur or proto-ethnographic project. Neither scientific nor strictly artistic, Régamey’s illustrations functioned as a supplement to Guimet’s text. However, at times Régamey’s illustrations also exceeded or contradicted the written word. I examine the tensions between text and image in Promenades japonaises and argue that they are most evident in the representation of the body in Japan. An analysis of Promenades japonaises shows that any alleged neutrality or scientific objectivity was unsustainable.
