A new pop-up exhibition has opened, exploring Sir Alfred East’s journey to Japan and how this remarkable time influenced the Kettering artist’s work.

When Alfred East arrived at Nagasaki in the spring of 1889, he was stepping into a country that was still alien to Western eyes. An established artist, he had been commissioned by the Fine Art Society to spend six months in Japan, painting the landscape and people of a land that, until recently, had been Sakoku – a “locked country”. Isolated from the world for many years, with trade and foreign visitors severely restricted, Japan’s borders were now open, and East was determined to capture the unfamiliar sights in his art.

As he travelled across Japan, a Victorian gentleman in a strange land, he visited cities such as Edo and Kyoto, and marveled at landmarks like Lake Hakone and Mount Fuji. Upon seeing Japan’s highest mountain for the first time, he wrote:

“How often I had dreamed of this, wondering if paint or pencil could catch the sense of its glory”.

Alfred East in Japan is a small exhibition that aims to showcase this incredible period in the great artist’s life. Using artworks from Alfred East Gallery’s collection and referencing East’s own journal that he kept while travelling, the exhibition examines his wonder and astonishment through his art and words.

Available now at the Discover Northamptonshire tourism hub, located by the entrance to Cineworld at Rushden Lakes.