A Japanese lacquer writing box decorated with a man trying to withhold a woman from fleeing, titled ‘...rukt zij zich uit mijne armen... De Vriend’ (...she tears herself out of my arms...The Friend)
Edo period, Kyoto-Nagasaki style, 1820- 1830
H. 14 x W. 45.3 x D. 25.4 cm
The depiction is from the book: A. la Fontaine, Belangrijke en Uitgelezene Geschiedverhalen van La Fontaine, Mev. De Genlis, Huber en meer anders Buitenlandsche Schrijvers, E. Bonte, Dordrecht, 1808.
It is a story about two friends in love with the same girl, where in the end everything turns out right. The story is much more virtuous than the image suggests, where the lady’s dress seems almost to be torn from her body. August Heinrich Julius La Fontaine (1758-1831), was a German novelist writing moralizing, sentimental and didactic tales of domestic life. His works were regarded with high favor at the court of Prussia and in his lifetime he was the most popular German novelist, his works surpassing by far the popularity of his contemporary Goethe.