Arnold Henry Savage Landor - First Expedition To America, and The Far East

First Expedition To America, and The Far East

Landor went to America with forty pounds in his pocket, and there he painted portraits which included President Benjamin Harrison and Miss Lincoln, granddaughter of Abraham Lincoln. He met the actress Lily Langtry in Chicago and painted the portraits of the American actress Cora Brown-Potter as 'Juliet', and the actor Harold Kyrle Bellew as 'Antonio'. With the money he had made in America, Landor then went to Vancouver where, aged 27 in 1889, he embarked for Yokohama.

When he got to Japan, he was filled with enthusiasm for all that was around him. In Nikkō, Kyoto, Hakone, Kamakura and other places, he painted 24 large canvases and many small ones. While in Japan Landor painted several portraits of people at the Mikado's Court. Among these is a life size portrait of the Countess Kuroda, second wife of the Prime Minister, that of the Countessa Saigo, daughter of the Prime Minister after Count Kuroda, and one of the baby daughter of the Countess Hijikata, daughter of the Emperor's Treasurer. While in Tokyo, Landor painted a half-size portrait of Sir Edwin Arnold, author of The Light of Asia and of many other books about India and Japan. In the course of this visit to Japan made a journey to the largely unexplored Island of Hokkaidō, where he got to know the customs of the indigenous Ainu. He made several paintings and subsequently wrote Alone with the Hairy Ainu (1893).

After Japan he went to Korea, where he painted portraits of Min San-ho, a nephew of the Korean queen, the Prince Min Yeong-hwan, Commander in Chief of the Korean army, and Min Yeong-chun, Prime Minister, whom Landor described as "Korea's Bismarck." From this journey to Korea, apart from his vivid sketches, came his book, Corea, or Cho-Sen, the Land of the Morning Calm (1895). From Korea he proceeded to China, visiting the Great Wall and then on to Peking, always sketching and making faithful notes of what he saw. He often met famous people in the most remote areas. At Hankow, for instance, he met Czar Nicholas II of Russia and Prince George of Greece. The Czar commissioned him to paint a huge canvas of the shipwreck of the Russian cruiseship the Crisorok, which Landor had originally sketched on the west coast of the island of Yezo. The canvas was then given by the Czar to the Naval Club of Vladivostok. In Peking, Landor met Sir Robert Hart, 1st Baronet, the English writer who was proficient in Chinese.

In 1891, he visited Australia, where he painted a portrait of the Prime Minister of New South Wales, Sir Henry Parkes which excited much admiration in Sydney because of its striking resemblance. While in Sydney, Landor painted the portrait of the African explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley.