<b>FADING LAMPLIGHT OF A PAGODA</b> / Uehara Konen1928<B>SOLD</B></em>
ARTIST: Uehara Konen (1877-1940)
TITLE: Fading Lamplight of a Pagoda
DATE: 1928
MEDIUM: Woodblock print
DIMENSIONS: 15 ¼ x 10 ¼ inches
CONDITION: Excellent; faint toning on reverse margins
LITERATURE: Amy Reigle Newland, gen. ed., Printed to Perfection: Twentieth-century Japanese Prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection, 2004, pp. 33-34
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SOLD
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Details
The crescent moon is seen overhead, just above the treetops and the apex of a pagoda. Bare trees outstretched meet the cold winter air. Inside the pagoda, a lamplight begins to fade at the center of the composition and gives way to the late hour. Perhaps echoing the lamplight’s slow descent is the waning moon whose light soon too will fade.
Konen was mostly known as a Nihonga painter but had a brief association with the publisher and founder of Shin Hanga, Watanabe Shozaburo. With Watanabe, Konen produced only two full-sized woodblock prints in 1928: a night view of Dotonbori in Osaka (also offered in this exhibition), and this moonlit view of a pagoda.
Connoisseur's Note
This print bears a Watanabe A-type seal, making it a rare first-state impression. The print's condition is excellent, exhibiting colors as fresh as the day they were printed. This impression is also noteworthy due to its strong atmospheric quality caused by the woodgrain pattern visible in the sky and throughout the composition. Such woodgrain patterns are only visible on the earliest printings, making this impression quite sought-after.