Flower-Placing

Mortimer Menpes

1901

Watercolour

Source: Japan, A Record in Colour, facing p. 112

"The art of arranging flowers is an exact science, in the study of which seven years of constant hard work finds a man but fairly proficient. In fact, to create a really fine arrangement is just as difficult as to paint an equally fine picture" (116). Devoting a whole chapter to the subject, Menpes was convinced that the Japanese had brought this art to perfection, and that the bouquets of flowers favoured by Westerners were not "natural" but simply crude in comparison (commentary continues below). — Jacqueline Banerjee

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"Every leaf and every flower has to be drawn and practically modelled into form, while even so simple a thing as the bending of a twig requires much care and knowledge. To become a master in the art of flower-arrangement a man must study for at least fourteen years, devoting the remainder of his life to perfecting and improving it.... Consummate naturalness is brought about only by consummate art, and is not the result of accident" (116-17).

Bibliography

Menpes, Dorothy. Japan: A Record in Colour. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1901. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of California Libraries. Web. 2 July 2019.

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Created 27 June 2019