NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WESTERN ART

Description

Essentials about the National Museum of Western Art in brief

The National Museum of Western Art is special among Tokyo’s museums. It houses a collection of over 6,000 European and North American sculptures and paintings from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, making it the largest museum of Western art in all of Asia. The museum building, designed by star architect Le Corbusier, features works by the most renowned Western artists. For lovers of Cézanne, Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Rodin, Rembrandt, Rubens and Van Gogh, this is an absolute must-see during a visit to Tokyo.

The history of the National Museum of Western Art

The foundation of the collection of the National Museum of Western Art goes back to Matsukata Kōjirō, one of the most important Japanese entrepreneurs in the first half of the 20th century. His collection, located in France, was confiscated as enemy property during World War II. In the late 1950s, France handed over part of the collection to the Japanese people as a gesture of reconciliation. However, the condition for the return was that a separate exhibition building would be constructed for the collection.

As the outstanding architect of his time, Le Corbusier was chosen to create the concrete structure of the museum in Ueno Park. In 1959, the National Museum of Western Art was opened. Since 2016, the building has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of “The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier.”

Since the opening of the Museum of Western Art, the museum’s holdings have grown steadily, and the original collection focus on French artists from the second half of the 19th century has been supplemented by older works dating back to the Middle Ages and expanded to include works from the 20th century. Today, the collection includes some 2,000 works, which, together with numerous temporary exhibitions, represent a comprehensive overview of the history of Western art.

The collection of the National Museum of Western Art

The collection of the museum begins in the early 15th century. Italian painting is strongly represented, with works by the masters of the time Jacopo Tintoretto, Giorgio Vasari, Paolo Veronese (to name just a few). Among the artists of Flemish and Dutch painting on display at the museum are Anthonis van Dyck, Peter Paul Rubens and Jacob van Ruysdael. But German painters such as Lucas Cranach the Elder and Spanish masters such as El Greco are also represented with works in the museum.

One of the focal points of the collection is French Impressionist painting. The who’s who of French Impressionists is represented in the National Museum of Western Art, from Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin to Édouard Manet and Claude Monet to Camille Pissarro and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Among the important names of 20th-century artists from whom the museum can show works in its exhibition are Kees van Dongen, Joan Miró, Pable Picasso and Jackson Pollock. The museum also has an extensive collection of drawings and prints. Among them are works by Dürer, Goya, Holbein and Rembrandt.

On the first floor of the main building, many of the museum’s sculptures by Auguste Rodin are on display. With 58 works, the museum has one of the best collections of the French draftsman and sculptor. The sculpture garden also features bronze casts of his well-known works The Thinker, The Burghers of Calais, and The Gates of Hell.