Louis Dumoulin’s Carp Banners is one of a series of paintings inspired by the artist’s trips to Asia in 1888 and 1889. The composition is loosely based on a photograph taken by an Italian photographer, Adolfo Farsari, who produced hand-colored photographs for the western tourist trade. He photographed this site in Yokohama about 1886. His photograph did not include the vivid carp banners, which were traditionally flown in celebration of male children. Dumoulin added the banners to his version of the scene, transforming it into a personal vision of the Japanese site—an amalgam of artistic sources, personal memory, and imagination.

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