Sir Robert Leicester Harmsworth (1870-1937) was a British politician, businessman, and art collector. My paper will focus on the Harmsworth collection of Japanese colour prints (ukiyo-e prints) to examine private collections of Japanese prints and British people’s perception of them in the early 20th century.

Following the Great Exhibition in 1851 and the International Exhibition in 1862, which exhibited Japanese artefacts, interests in Japanese art in Britain quickly grew, and collections were built up by both museums and individuals, particular of Japanese prints. Harmsworth collected key prints by Sharaku, Utamaro, and Hokusai, lending more than three hundred Japanese prints to the V&A, for its Japanese prints exhibition of 1913 to 1914. Because of his high-quality collection, the exhibition was a conspicuous success, and, in 1922, Japanese prints from his collection again appeared in the Japanese theatrical art exhibition at the museum.

Although the Harmsworth collection contained a wide range of prominent Japanese prints, compared with great Japanese art collectors in Britain such as William Anderson and Arthur Morrison, Harmsworth and his collection have not been examined sufficiently because his collection was scattered after his death. Through the analysis of exhibition catalogues, reviews, and auction catalogues, my paper will explore the scope of the Harmsworth collection, and illuminate the significance of the collection as one of the proofs of Japanese prints’ strong presence in Britain in the early 20th century.