JAPANESE ART > KUCHI-E WOODBLOCK PRINTS > WHITE DEW

Lot 00881
N.1 kuchi-e woodblock print

Tomioka Eisen

WHITE DEW

Year: 1898
Condition: good
Size: 31,5 x 22 cm

SOLD

Fine kuchi-e (口絵) woodblock print made by the artist Tomioka Eisen (富岡永洗) as frontispiece of the novel Shiratsuyu (志ら露), ie "White Dew", by the writer and literary critic Goto Chugai (後藤宙外). It is an autumn night and a young fiancée, in front of the entrance to a garden, looks at her beloved who walks away under the moonlight.

Tomioka Eisen (1864 - 1905), a pupil of Kobayashi Eitaku (小林永濯), began working as a freelance artist when he was still a draughtsman in the imperial army. After the disappearance of his master, he devoted himself entirely to his artistic career and became a very appreciated and well-paid magazine illustrator. He died only forty-one years old, when the kuchi-e movement was in full bloom.

The print on Japanese washi paper (和紙), produced in November 1898 by the publisher Shunyodo (春陽堂) in Tokyo, despite a slight halo and a small drop of pigment on the woman's neck, is in good condition.

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