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Watanabe Seite is one of our favorite vintage artists. He was born in the late nineteenth century and was a trailblazer for his time. When he landed in Paris in 1878 to accept an award for his art he was one of the first Asian painters to have ever set foot in the West.
You can easily recognize a Watanabe painting due to a special brand of quirkiness that sets him apart from his peers. He’s best-known for his signature approach on the kacho-style (paintings featuring birds and flowers) fusing it with a European flair that he absorbed in Paris. This unique blending of genres is what makes his work so distinctive and appealing. |
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Paris, 1878The budding artist's travels took him to the USA and Europe but it was Paris that truly captured his heart. Embracing the Parisian culture and meeting new European artists allowed him to tap in to the essence of Western style, mastering form and composition techniques. It was here he began experimenting with a Kahco / Euro flair that would later become his signature style, lavishing him with worldwide recognition that only a handful of Asian artists had known before him. He spent three years in Paris perfecting his new methodology before returning home to continue his work in Japan.
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