Details

This European design was produced when Kanae Yamamoto visited Normandy in 1913. The print depicts bathers along a rocky shore. We can see the various European influences at work in this design; traces of Gauguin and Northern French artists are felt through Yamamoto’s choice of subject, composition, and palette. Though the design is charming, the print is most noteworthy for the manner in which it was produced. This early Sosaku Hanga demonstrates its pedigree with a design that contains no black key-block outlines. Rather, the image is built-up by color blocks printed on top of each other. This highly creative technique was radical at the time and lent itself to expressively potent works, which the Sosaku Hanga genre is well known to have produced.

Connoisseur's Note

Given this print was originally produced in Europe in a limited number for a shortlist of subscribers back in Japan, this design is currently known in only a few impressions surviving in private hands, making it exceedingly difficult to acquire. This particular impression is in an outstanding state of preservation. The print is executed on lower quality Japanese papers, which contain inclusions that can be seen throughout the sheet, most noticeably in the rocks and in the sky. These inclusions are well-known in Yamamoto’s prints and are found on all impressions of this design. Please note, what appears as toning or foxing in the sky is a combination of inclusions in the paper as well as artifacts caused by the flatbed scanner’s bright light. These artifacts are not actually present in the work. This particular print is in an exceedingly excellent state of preservation—ideal for an institution or a serious collector of fine Sosaku Hanga.