<b>YARIGATAKE</b> / Hiroshi Yoshida1926<b>SOLD</b></em>

Details

Hiroshi Yoshida was an accomplished hiker and mountaineer as much as he was an artist. Yoshida took full advantage of his travels and painted the important natural treasures he visited—all executed in the field, utilizing the technique of plein air painting. Yoshida’s twelve woodblock prints from his Japanese Alps series were all conceived on his expeditions, and are based on oil or watercolor paintings he produced onsite, which account for the strong realism in the designs, a quality rarely encountered in Japanese prints.

Though not as widely known, the Japanese Alps are as majestic and difficult to summit as their Swiss counterparts. Yoshida made repeated treks up these steep climbs and in 1926 he immortalized the journey. In this print, Yoshida provides the viewer with a peek at a rest stop on the way to the summit of Yariga-dake. The figures in the lower-left corner collect themselves and they aim to mount the towering summit overhead. Yoshida does a wonderful job and depicting the rocky apex with a soft printing technique that produces a rich texture. The atmospheric quality of this print is palpable, as the artist utilizes a block carved out in gouges above and to the side of the peak with a subtle bokashi, or color gradation, which gives a sense of a billowing wind full of dust and snow.

Connoisseur's Note

This print is a fantastic early impression in an exceptional state of presentation with fresh and vibrant colors. The print bears a jizuri seal as well as a brush and pencil signature, indicating it was produced under Yoshida’s strict supervision. This impression’s coloration is stronger than what is normally seen with a particularly pronounced atmospheric effect.