<b>GOSHIKIGAHARA</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 done 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 an expansive view of the summit Goshikigahara. The theatrics of the view are in the billowing clouds above as the setting sun illuminates the bulbous forms passing overhead. For Yoshida, this summit’s ascent is a story best recounted by the heavens above in this striking design.

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.

Yoshida experimented with variant states in the early portion of his career; this design is one of the works that commonly appear in color variants demonstrating the artist’s wiliness to experiment. This impression’s coloration is stronger than what is normally seen with a particularly pronounced atmospheric effect.