<b>LEDA AND THE SWAN</b>Ryuzaburo Umehara1957<b>SOLD</b></em>

Details

Umehara was a Japanese yoga-style painter who is best remembered for his striking vibrant colors executed in dynamic brushstrokes. Umehara’s work represents an interesting synthesis of Japanese and western aesthetics. The artist studied both in Japan and the West and became a devoted pupil of Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Umerhara inherited Renoir’s broken brush stroke technique but advanced its daring quality further in his striking fauvist-like palette. Umehara is both known for his energetic landscapes and his probing psychological portraits of female subjects that display proto-feminist attributes.

“Leda and the Swan” originates from Greek mythology and is no stranger to artistic representation. Leda was an astonishingly beautiful woman and daughter of Thestius, the King of Pleuron. Leda was married to King Tyndareus of Sparta, who had been placed on the throne by Heracles. Leda’s beauty attracted the attention of Zeus, who spied her from his throne on Mount Olympus. The beauty of Leda roused Zeus to action, and the god transformed himself into a magnificent swan. In disguise, Zeus impregnates Leda.

Umehara’s design preserves the traditional depiction of the scene. The design features Zeus, in the form of a swan, with raised wings confronting the started Leda. The beautiful Leda is shown reclining the gown with one hand raised in shock while the other supporting her wait. Her legs are slightly apart, perhaps anticipating the act to come. The entire scene is rendered in quick and spontaneous lines. The entire surface of the printing plate has been worked over by the artist. The background landscape displays three circular forms suggesting the celestial movement of the heavens and reinforcing the surreal and unworldly encounter. The striking quality of the lines gives the design a slight violence which reinforces Zeus’s nonconsensual act. 

Connoisseur's Note

This print is a rare self-produced work executed entirely by the artist. The work was executed in an exceedingly rare run and is only known in a handful of impressions. The work is titled and signed in the plate as well as in the artist’s hand in the bottom margin.