<b>MOONLIGHT ON MT. FUJI</b> / Lilian May Miller20th Century<b>SOLD</b></em>
ARTIST: Lilian May Miller (1895-1943)
TITLE: Moonlight on Mt. Fuji
MEDIUM: Woodblock
DATE: 20th century
DIMENSIONS: 10 3/4 x 15 3/4 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, pl. 79
NOTE: Dedication in image at the lower left corner of the design
SOLD
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ARTIST: Lilian May Miller (1895-1943)
TITLE: Moonlight on Mt. Fuji
MEDIUM: Woodblock
DATE: 20th century
DIMENSIONS: 10 3/4 x 15 3/4 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, pl. 79
NOTE: Dedication in image at the lower left corner of the design
SOLD
.
ARTIST: Lilian May Miller (1895-1943)
TITLE: Moonlight on Mt. Fuji
MEDIUM: Woodblock
DATE: 20th century
DIMENSIONS: 10 3/4 x 15 3/4 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, pl. 79
NOTE: Dedication in image at the lower left corner of the design
SOLD
.
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 lone sailboat drifts over Mt. Fuji’s wide reflection as a soft moonlight illuminates this dream-like scene. Fuji-san’s snowcapped peak is highlighted by the moonlight and is dispersed for miles in the still body of water, past the boat, meeting the viewer with the gentle tide.
Moonlight on Mt. Fuji is one of Miller’s most successful designs. The work is lyrical and poetic. 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.
Connoisseur's Note
This particular impression demonstrates a subtle and beautiful wood grain pattern in the background, particularly noticeable in the water and Mt. Fuji. This woodgrain pattern provides an effective atmospheric quality as well as a gentle sense of movement within the body of water. 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. As a result, a substantial amount of material that comes to market contains dedications and highly personal notations, as this work illustrates.
