<b>ORANGE-SAILED JUNK OF THE HAN, KOREA</b> / LILIAN MAY MILLER1920<B>SOLD</B></em>
ARTIST: Lilian May Miller (1895-1943)
TITLE: Orange-Sailed Junk of the Han, Korea
MEDIUM: Woodblock
DATE: 1920
DIMENSIONS: 19 ¾ x 10 3/8 inches
CONDITION: Minor thinning to paper on reverse
LITERATURE: Brown, Ken, Pacific Asian Museum, Between Two Worlds: The Life and Art of Lilian May Miller, fig. 36, pg.51
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SOLD
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Details
Lillian May Miller was an American painter, woodblock printmaker, and poet born in Tokyo, Japan. After her formal education in the United States, Miller returned to Asia in 1918. Miller began producing woodblock prints when she returned, but printmaking was secondary to her career as a journalist and secretary/clerk for the State Department and the American Embassy for much of her professional life. Perhaps because Miller was born in Japan and spent a significant portion of her youth receiving art education and training in Asia, her work illustrates a direct engagement and understanding of Japanese artistic philosophy and aesthetics from within the tradition.
A long and dramatic pine tree partially obscures the view of a sailboat as it meanders its way along a winding riverbank. The format of this idyllic composition echoes the pine tree’s long, confident form as well as the junk’s raised, determined sails. This picturesque design evokes a sense of timelessness and stands as an iconic image for Miller’s body of work and prints produced by Western artists of this era.
An apt student of Japanese art, Miller inherited the playful composition’s device of a partially obscured view from Hiroshige. Further, the design’s long and narrow form echoes the format of kakemono hanging scrolls. Miller has added an additional element of interest to her print by incorporating a greenish-yellow hue printed directly within the boundary of the print’s margins, further echoing the aesthetics of hanging scrolls.
Connoisseur's Note
Of all the Western artists working in Asia at this time, Miller’s artwork is perhaps the least encountered in the marketplace. Simply put, she was not a professional artist, which resulted in a much smaller output. Most of Miller’s artwork was distributed among her circle of family and friends, and a large portion of her work was gifted to people within her inner circle.
The print is in pristine, untouched condition with exceedingly fresh and vivid colors. The artist’s signature is in black ink at the bottom right
