略歴・解説

江戸麹町田原藩上屋敷に生まれた。絵は金子金陵から谷文晁につき､伝統的な東洋画の画風に西洋的な陰影･遠近画法を加えた作品に評価が高い。40歳で藩の江戸家老となり､藩財政の立て直しを進めながら､江戸の蘭学研究の中心にいた。｢蛮社の獄｣で高野長英らと共に投獄され､在所蟄居となり天保12年に田原池ノ原で自刃した。

In 1793, Watanabe Kazan was born in the upper house of the Tahara domain in Kojimachi, Edo.
He learned painting from Kaneko Kinryo and Tani Buncho, and added Western-style shading and perspective to traditional Oriental painting styles.
At the age of 40, he became an Edo retainer of the domain and was at the center of Dutch studies in Edo while promoting the restoration of the domain's finances.
He was imprisoned together with Takano Choei and others in the “Prison of the Barbarian Company,” and was sent to his estate in Tahara, where he committed suicide at Tahara-Ikenohara in 1841.