Wilhelm Heine (1827–1885). Encampment of Commodore Perry’s Expedition, Japan. 1853–1854

(PETER BERNARD) WILLIAM HEINE (German/American, 1827–1885)
Commodore Perry Visits Japan. Perry's Expedition at Hakodate, 1856.

Signed lower left: “W. Heine 1856”
Oil on canvas
42 1/4 x 59 3/4 inches

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PROVENANCE

• Junius Spencer Morgan II (nephew of John Pierpont Morgan, Sr.) & Josephine Perry Morgan (great-niece of Commodore Perry), Princeton, NJ

• Thence by descent to Alexander Perry Morgan, New York

• Thence by descent, Private collection, New York

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INCREDIBLY SCARCE OIL PAINTING BY THE OFFICIAL ARTIST TO THE PERRY EXPEDITION — ONE OF THE FIRST OBTAINABLE IMAGES OF DIPLOMATIC EXCHANGE BETWEEN THE U.S. & JAPAN.

An exceptionally rare painting by William Heine, the official artist for Commodore Matthew C. Perry's pivotal expedition to Japan (1853–1854) which re-opened trade between Japan and the West after 220 years.

For centuries, the strict Japanese isolationist policy known as sakoku presented a significant barrier to trade and the whaling industry. Earnest yet unsuccessful attempts by the Americans to dismantle the separatist system can be traced back to 1790, with the most prominent being the Morrison Incident (1842) and Commander Biddle’s expedition (1846). However, with the American victory over Mexico in 1848, the call for hospitable exchange with Japan was more urgent than ever before. The United States now commanded coastlines along the Pacific and local ports, such as San Francisco, were rapidly developing. This momentum was further encouraged by advancements to the steam engine which cut travel time between California and Japan down to a mere 18 days.

With this most pressing need, President Filmore organized yet another expedition to be sent out across the Pacific in 1852. Under the recommendation of Captain James Glynn, this fleet was to be significantly more militarily equipped and negotiations were to be backed with a demonstration of force. It was fitting then that Commodore Perry, who oversaw the U.S. Navy during the last years of the Mexican-American war, would be selected to lead the charge even further west. With an iron fist, Perry was to deliver President Filmore’s deceptively passive message: that the two countries “should live in friendship and have commercial intercourse with each other.”

To document the expedition, the young but seasoned traveler and artist William Heine was brought on as the official illustrator. At the time of his application, Heine was still in Nicaragua, serving as an artist for the U.S. consul to Central America, Ephraim George Squire. In Squire’s absence Heine managed to negotiate a commercial treaty between the U.S. and Central America, and was sent back to Washington to deliver his success. It was back at the capital that Heine first met President Filmore and Commodore Perry, and by October of 1852, Heine was aboard the Mississippi amongst Perry’s fleet.

After treaty negotiations were finalized in Yokohama in March 1854, Perry and his fleet traveled to the two designated ports that were opened with the signing of the Kanagawa Treaty: first Shimoda, which lies south in Shizuoka, and then Hakodate in the northernmost island of Hokkaido. The present painting documents the expedition's visit to the latter, Hakodate, where they arrived in May 1854. Perry’s mission there was to survey the harbor and establish the terms of American access under the new agreement.

Hakodate’s selection as one of first opened ports was strategic as it was an ideal stopover for ships, particularly whaling boats, navigating the northern waters of Japan. As a gateway between the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean, Hakodate was well situated to serve as a coaling station and logistical hub for exports to China and Russia. Perry likened the town to Gibraltar, “its steep promontory, narrow neck of land, and commanding views over the Strait of Tsugaru [recall] the British stronghold’s position between the Atlantic and Mediterranean.” Furthermore, thanks to the warm ocean currents brought in by the Tsugaru Strait and the deep protective curve of the bay, the harbor did not form surface ice even during the frigid winters.

Heine’s depiction of Hakodate features the town’s distinctive half moon bay with the tombolo leading to Mount Hakodate in the distance. Even further along the horizon sit a range of snowy peaks, a reminder of Hokkaido’s notoriously cold climate. On the plateau overlooking the town are small clusters of Japanese samurai around their encampment in the hills. One group lounges next to a camp fire, another near an earthmound kiln billowing smoke, and the last returning back from a fox hunt with their American visitor.

In his memoir, Heine writes of a very similar scene during his time in Hakodate:
“After a climb of two strenuous hours we reached a plateau at last. It offered a magnificent prospect over the bay far below. My companions built a fire, two stayed with the horses, and the others followed me with the dogs into the thicket. I carried my shotgun, in each barrel a ball and three buckshot, the typical load on our ships. Thick forests invest these mountains, and narrow paths serve the pack animals that carry quantities of wood and charcoal down to the plain. (Charcoal-burning here, done in heaps in the forests, practically duplicates the way we do it.)” (Heine, 158)

The official account by Perry’s Narrative of the expedition (1856) includes a comparable view of Hakodate by Heine, also taken from the elevated vantage point with the published named “Snow Peak.” While the arrangement of figures vary between Heine’s lithographed image and his painted image of Hakodate, the two are nearly identical in scenery and effect.

One glaring omission from the printed image is the smoking charcoal kiln found in the present painting. Likely written off as insignificant for the official narrative, this basic structure captured Heine’s attention enough to manifest in both his written and painted accounts. It exemplifies his voracious curiosity and observance for even the most mundane aspects of life. If there was something to see, even things that others did not see, “Mr. Heine made a drawing of it” as was recorded time and time again in the official narrative.

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After William Heine

View of Hakodate from “Snow Peak" looking towards the sea
Lithograph
From Narrative of the expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, 1856.

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Heine’s visual treatment of Hakodate is in keeping with the rest of his romantic depictions of Japan, rugged vistas imbued with a dream-like serenity. However even in his most expansive landscapes, Heine never lost sight of the human figures that populated his travels. His paintings and drawings from this expedition reveal a harmonious rapport between Americans and the locals who are seen mingling peacefully in the goings of daily life. Although the American presence in Japan was contentious and their reconciliation still quite tenuous, Heine’s pictures show remarkably little sense of strain or strangeness.

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Biographical Note

(Peter Bernard) William Heine (1827–1885) was born in Dresden and trained at the Royal Academy of Art, studying under the Düsseldorf School painter Julius Hübner. In 1849, after taking part in the failed May Uprising in Dresden, Heine fled to New York with assistance from Alexander von Humboldt. Heine established a studio at 515 Broadway though soon after was invited to accompany archaeologist and diplomat Ephraim George Squier on consular duties to Central America as an expedition artist. Traveling ahead of Squier, Heine documented local flora and fauna and compiled notes for future publications. The results of this journey were later published in 1853 as Wanderbilder aus Zentralamerika.

While in Washington, Heine met President Millard Fillmore and Commodore Matthew Perry, who selected him from among many applicants to serve as the official artist for Perry’s expedition to Japan. Officially listed as an Acting Master’s Mate, Heine served aboard the flagship USS Mississippi under Sydney Smith Lee. The expedition stopped at Madeira, St. Helena, Cape Town, Mauritius, Ceylon, Macao, Hong Kong, Ryukyu Islands, and Japan. All along the way, Heine produced hundreds of sketches which were later translated into lithographic plates for Perry’s Narrative of the expedition (New York, 1856). His work, together with the daguerreotypes of his colleague Eliphalet Brown Jr., became the core visual record of the American expedition and remain an invaluable depiction of Japan before its opening to the West.

Upon returning to New York in 1855, Heine created numerous publications in addition to his contribution to Perry’s official report, including Graphic Scenes of the Japan Expedition and his own memoirs, Reise um die Welt nach Japan (Leipzig, 1856). Heine’s publications on Japan are often considered among the greatest American colorplate travel works of the nineteenth century and serve as the most important visual records of the start of American and Japanese trade and diplomatic relations.