Western Art History Academic Staff: Toshiharu Nakamura

Toshiharu Nakamura Professor, PhD (Kyoto University)

Research Interests

  • Peter Paul Rubens and his workshop, his collaboration with specialists and his relationship with Van Dyck as workshop assistant
  • Formation of taste for drawings, sketches, and unfinished works among art lovers in the 17th and 18th centuries
  • Images of family, mother and child, and the home in northern Europe in the 17th century

Selected Publications

・Monograph

  • Toshiharu Nakamura, Inspiration and Emulation: Selected Studies on Rubens and Rembrandt, Kayo Hirakawa (ed.), Peter Lang, Bern, 2019.
  • Peter Paul Rubens between Art and Politics, Sangensha Publishers, Tokyo 2006. [Japanese]

・Edited Books and Catalogs

  • Kyoto Studies in Art History, vol. 2: Appreciating the Traces of an Artist’s Hand, Department of Aesthetics and Art History, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 2017.
  • Bijutsu Forum 21, vol. 33: The Stages of Life in Art, Kyoto, 2016 [Japanese/Abstract in English]
  • Images of Familial Intimacy in Eastern and Western Art, The Intimate and the Public in Asian and Global Perspective, vol. 4, Brill, Leiden and Boston, 2014.
  • Exh. Cat., Rubens: Inspired by Italy and Established in Antwerp, The Mainichi Newspapers, Tokyo, 2013. [Japanese]
  • Essays for the Exhibition Catalogue, Rubens: Inspired by Italy and Established in Antwerp, The Mainichi Newspapers, Tokyo, 2013.
  • Exh. Cat. Milkmaid by Vermeer and Dutch Genre Painting, Tokyo Shimbun, Tokyo, 2007. [Japanese]
  • Essays for the Exhibition Catalogue, Milkmaid by Vermeer and Dutch Genre Painting, Tokyo Shimbun, Tokyo, 2007.
  • Rembrandt as Norm and Anti-Norm: Papers Given at a Colloquium Held at the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, December 15, 2002, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 2004.
  • Exh. Cat. Dutch Art in the Age of Frans Hals from the Collection of Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Tokyo Shimbun, Tokyo, 2003.
  • Exh. Cat. European Baroque Paintings from The John and Ringling Museum of Art and the Bob Jones University Museum Gallery, Tokyo Shimbun, Tokyo, 1997.
  • Exh. Cat. Rembrandt: His Teachers and Pupils, The Tokyo Shimbun, Tokyo, 1992.
  • Rubens and His Workshop: The Flight of Lot and His Family from Sodom, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 1994.

・Co-Authored Books

  • Yoshiki Ono, Toshiharu Nakamura, Kikuro Miyashita, Noriko Mochizuki, A History of Western Art, vol. 6, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Chuokoron-Shinsha, 2016 (Introduction and Chapter 3 “The Netherlandish Art in the Seventeenth Century,” pp. 17–52, 397–524).

・Essays

  • “The Penitent Magdalene from the Former Joseph Robinson Collection: Young van Dyck Working up Rubens’s Conception”, Justus Lange and Birgit Ulrike Münch (ed.), Reframing Jordaens: Pictor Ductus-Techniques-Workshop Practice, Petersberg, 2018, pp. 75-91.
  • “Rubens and the History of the Oil Sketch”, Toshiharu Nakamura (ed.), Kyoto Studies in Art History, vol. 2: Appreciating the Traces of an Artist’s Hand, Department of Aesthetics and Art History, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 2017, pp. 19–39.
  • “The Court of Philip IV and Rubens: Toward an Interpretation of Las Meninas”, Velazquez and the Baroque Painting: Influence, Contemporaneity, Reception & Heritage, Tokyo, 2016, pp. 19–28. [Japanese]
  • “The Stages of Life in Art”, Bijutsu Forum 21, vol. 33: The Stages of Life in Art, Kyoto, 2016, pp. 26-26, 142-144. [Japanese/Abstract in English]
  • “Representations of Elderly People in 17th Century Dutch and Flemish Genre Painting: Old Age as a Stage of preparation for the Afterlife”, Bijutsu Forum 21, vol. 33: The Stages of Life in Art, Kyoto, 2016, pp. 76-81, 142. [Japanese/Abstract in English]
  • “Front Cover Illustration: Pieter de Hooch, Woman with a Child in a Pantry”, Bijutsu Forum 21, vol. 33: The Stages of Life in Art, Kyoto, 2016, pp. 133-136. [Japanese/English]
  • “Frans Hals’s Painterly Style and His Tronie-like Genre Paintings: An Examination of the Influence of Flemish Head Studies”, Kayo Hirakawa (ed.), Kyoto Studies in Art History, vol. 1: Sacred and Profane in Early Modern Art, Department of Aesthetics and Art History, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 2016, pp. 59-84.
  • “An Introduction to Interpreting Images of Family, Mother and Child, and the Home”, Toshiharu Nakamura (ed.), Images of Familial Intimacy in Eastern and Western Art, Brill, Leiden and Boston, 2014, pp. 1-53.
  • “How to Construct Better Narrative Compositions: Rembrandt’s Probable Teaching Methods and Instruction”, Kayo Hirakawa (ed.), Aspects of Narrative in Art History, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 2014, pp.  73-84.
  • “Rubens’s Painting Practice: Some Considerations on His Collaboration with Specialists and His Relationship with Van Dyck as Workshop Assistant”, Toshiharu Nakamura (ed.), Essays for the Exhibition Catalogue, Rubens: Inspired by Italy and Established in Antwerp, The Mainichi Newspapers, Tokyo, 2013, pp. 5-20.
  • “Rubens’ ‘Judgement of Art’ and Sensuality: Criticism of Depictions of Nudity in the Age of Counter-Reformation”, Studies in Western Art, 16, 2012, pp. 85-110. [Japanese/Abstract in English]
  • “Housewives and Maidservants in Dutch Seventeenth Century Paintings”, Toshiharu Nakamura (ed.), Essays for the Exhibition Catalogue, Milkmaid by Vermeer and Dutch Genre Painting, Tokyo Shimbun, Tokyo, 2007, pp. 14-21.
  • “A Struggle for Independence?: Young Van Dyck and Rubens”, Studies in Western Art, 13, 2007, pp 158―184. [Japanese]
  • “Van Dyck and Charles I: A Review of the London Years”, Studies in Western Art, 12, 2006, pp. 47―67. [Japanese/Abstract in English]
  • “Rembrandt’s Blinding of Samson: A Work for Artistic Emulation with Rubens?”, Akira Kofuku (ed.), Rembrandt and Dutch History Painting in the 17th Century, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2004, pp. 123-138.
  • “Rembrandt’s Andromeda”, Toshiharu Nakamura (ed.), Rembrandt as Norm and Anti-Norm: Papers Given at a Colloquium Held at the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, December 15, 2002,  Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, 2004, pp. 31-60.
  • “Haarlem Mannerism and Karel van Mander’s View of Painting”, Exh. Cat. Dutch Art in the Age of Frans Hals from the Collection of Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Tokyo Shimbun, Tokyo, 2003, pp. 138-142.
  • “Rubens’ Approach to Ancient Sculpture and his Relationship with Annibale Carracci”, Studies in Western Art, 7, 2002, pp. 57-75. [Japanese/Abstract in English]
  • “A Study of The Horrors of War by Rubens: The Story of Mars and Venus, Its Allegorical Meanings and the Iconographic Tradition”, Studies in Western Art, 1, 1999, pp. 49-82. [Japanese/Abstract in English]
  • “Rubens and Flower Still Life Paintings: Regarding ‘Pausias and Glycera'”, Exh. Cat. European Baroque Paintings from The John and Ringling Museum of Art and the Bob Jones University Museum Gallery, Tokyo Shimbun, Tokyo, 1997, pp. 163-168.
  • “An Investigation on Rubens’s ‘The Hero (Tugendheld) Crowned by Victory’ and ‘Drunken Hercules'”, Bijutsushi: Journal of the Japan Art History Society, 45/2(140), 1996, pp. 138-157. [Japanese/Abstract in English]
  • “Marten de Vos, ‘The Last Supper'”, Annual Bulletin of The National Museum of Western Art, 27-28, 1996, pp. 13-19.
  • “Rembrandt’s Workshop and Rembrandt as a Teacher”, Exh. Cat. Rembrandt: His Teachers and Pupils, The Tokyo Shimbun, Tokyo, 1992, pp. 199ー209.
  • “P. P. Rubens ‘Die Geißelung Christi der Paulskirche zu Antwerpen'”, Bijutsushi: Journal of the Japan Art History Society, 37/2 (124), 1989, pp. 109-121. [Japanese/Abstract in German]
  • “Rubens’ Tod von Seneca: Ein Aspekt der Antikenrezeption”, Bigaku: Journal of the Japanese Society of Aesthetics, 44/3, 1987, pp. 50-62. [Japanese/Abstract in German]

Selected Presentations

  • “Rubens and the History of the Oil Sketch”, Kyoto Art History Colloquium: Appreciating the Traces of an Artist’s Hand, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 25. September, 2016.
  • “The Court of Philip IV and Rubens: Toward an Interpretation of Las Meninas”, The International Symposium: Velazquez and the Baroque Painting, Ono Memorial Hall, Waseda University, Tokyo, 4. March, 2016.
  • “Virtues and Vices of Old People in Netherlandish Seventeenth-Century Genre Paintings”, KUASU The 8th Next Generation Global Workshop: Demographic Challenges in the Era of Global Ageing and Migration, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 1. August, 2015.
  • “Old women and men in the Seventeenth-Century Netherlandish Painting”, The 10th Annual Symposium of Japanese Association for Art Studies: The Poetics of the Ordinary Life, Lecture Hall, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, 13. June, 2015.
  • “Making of Frans Hals’s Painterly Style: An Examination of the Influence of Antwerp Painters”, Kyoto Art History Colloquium: Sacred and Profane in Early Modern Art, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 4. October, 2014.
  • “Notes on the Interpretation of Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting”, Kyoto University and National Taiwan University Symposium 2014, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 1. September, 2014.
  • “How to Construct Better Narrative Compositions: Rembrandt’s Probable Teaching Methods and Instruction”, The International Workshop for Young Researchers: Aspects of Narrative in Art History,  Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 2-3 December 2013.
  • “The Penitent Magdalene from the Former Joseph Robinson Collection: Young Van Dyck Working up Rubens’s Conception”, International Symposium: Jacob Jordaens: Origin, Transformation, Conservation, Gartensaal der Orangerie, Kassel, Germany, 7 May 2013.
  • “Young Van Dyck as an Imitator of Rubens and His Struggle for Novelty”, Beijing Forum 2011: The Harmony of Civilizations and Prosperity for All, Panel V: Artistic Heritage and Cultural Innovation, Beijing University, Beijing, 6 November 2011.
  • “Rembrandt’s ‘Blinding of Samson’: A Work for Artistic Emulation with Rubens?”, Symposium: Rembrandt and 17th-Century Dutch History Painting, The National Museum of Western Art, 14 September 2003.
  • “Rembrandt’s Andromeda”, International Colloquium: Rembrandt as Norm and Anti-Norm, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, 15 December 2002.

Exhibition Curating

  • “Rubens: Inspired by Italy and Established in Antwerp”, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, 9 March-21 April 2013; Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Kitakyushu, 28 April-16 June 2013; The Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Nagaoka, 29 June-11 August 2013.
  • “Milkmaid by Vermeer and Dutch Genre Painting”, The National Art Center, Tokyo, 26 September-17 December 2007.
  • “Dutch Art in the Age of Frans Hals from the Collection of Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem”, The Niigata Bandaijima Art Museum, Niigata, 7 October-30 November 2003; Toyohashi City Museum of Art, Toyohashi, 6 December 2003-18 January 2004; Sakura City Museum of Art, Sakura, 24 January-7 March 2004.
  • “European Baroque Paintings from The John and Ringling Museum of Art and the Bob Jones University Museum Gallery”, The Hiratsuka Museum of Art, Hiratsuka, 26 April―8 June 1997; Tobu Museum of Art, Tokyo, 19 June-27 July 1997; Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Takamatsu, 5 August-7 September 1997;The Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai, 13 September-26 October 1997.
  • “Rubens and His Workshop: The Flight of Lot and His Family from Sodom”, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 13 July-29 August 1993.
  • “Rembrandt: His Teachers and Pupils”, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, 15 April-7 June 1992; Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, Sakura, 13 June-2 August 1992; Yamaguchi Prefectural Art Museum, 7 August-16 September 1992.

Research Projects

  • “Historical Studies on Appreciating the Traces of an Artist’s Hand”, 2013-2017 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
  • “Internal and External Relations of Artist Workshops: Aspects of Leaning, Collaboration, and Emulation”, 2009-2012 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
  • “Representations of Home, Women and Children in the Eastern and Western Art”, 2008-2009 Global COE for Reconstruction of the Intimate and Public Spheres in 21st Century Asia, Kyoto University.
  • “Studies on Ephemeral Displays of Artworks in the Pre-modern Times”, 2005-2008 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Academic Career

  • April 1989-March 1993 Curator at the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
  • April 1993-March 2003 Associate Professor at the Faculty of Letters/Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University
  • From April 2003 Professor at the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University