Details

Helen Hyde presents the viewer with the archetypical subject of a mother and child. This theme has been presented and reworked by countless artists for centuries throughout the annals of art history. In Hyde’s work, we encounter a Japanese woman in a kimono with headwrap holding her small child, dressed in a kimono and headwrap. The child is even shown wearing traditional Japanese wooden shoes—geta. Due to their cold-weather clothing, the scene is most likely set in winter, evoking the Christmas story and countless paintings of the subject.

Hyde’s association with the biblical story is overt, as her title Japanese Madonna makes the connection explicit. It is interesting to observe how the winds of influence carry. Hyde became interested in Japan through Japonisme, Ukiyo-e, and the paintings of Mary Cassatt. It’s instructive to see this work through this prism—a traditional Western artistic theme reintroduced through a native Japanese printmaking medium.

Connoisseur's Note

This print is among Helen Hyde’s earliest works. The design was conceived and executed contemporaneously to the work of Marry Cassatt and other Western artists producing Japonisme that was directly influenced by Asia, particularly Japan. This impression was printed in Japan while Hyde took up residency in Tokyo. This early printing is a proof impression with a more pronounced bokashi, or color gradation, seen in the woman’s kimono. The print is in exceedingly fine state of preservation—it has never been framed and is tipped onto its original paper folder mount.