<b>NIKKO GARDEN PAINTING</b> / Lilian May Miller1938$1,200</em>

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.

This charming painting depicts a rustic cottage-like structure deep within the woods in Nikko. The scene showcases an Autumn that is relatively new—a single tree and two bushes have lost their summer greens, turning brilliant crimson. The design is contemplative and serene, with only the light of day boasting activity. This scene evokes the thought and aesthetics of the Japanese tea ceremony, or wabi-sabi, established by Sen no Rikyu in the 16th century. As a philosophy, wabi-sabi is centered toward the acceptance of transience and imperfection: the aesthetic honors the imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness in nature. Naturally, well-worn forms are elevated as an artistic expression and are celebrated for the clarity and potency of their simplicity. This lone and remote cabin with only Autumn as its guest eloquently evokes this traditional Japanese aesthetics.

Miller’s painting is highly evocative and replete with traditional Japanese poetics and brings to mind one of Basho’s best poems:

fall arriving—

even at my remote

mountain cottage

Connoisseur's Note

Of all the Western artists working in Asia at this time, Miller’s artwork is perhaps the rarest 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.