<b>WHITE BIRDS ON A POMEGRANATE TREE (NIGHT)</b> / Fritz Capelari1915<b>SOLD</b></em>

Details

The publisher Watanabe Shōzaburo started his enterprise reproducing well-known Ukiyo-e designs during the late Meiji period. Seeing an opportunity to produce original work and revitalize the art of woodblock prints, he first hired the Austrian artist Fritz Capelari. Producing more than a dozen designs for Watanabe, Capelari is credited with being the first Shin Hanga artist, thus creating a blueprint for combining Western aesthetic concerns with Japanese motifs that influenced both Watanabe and his future stable of artists.

Taking its cues from Edo-period Ukiyo-e, this stunning modern kacho-e design is encapsulated within a circular format which pays tribute to the earlier fan prints of Hiroshige or Hokusai. The design features two white birds perched on a pomegranate branch fast asleep in the depth of night.

It's interesting to note the lack of pomegranates in this design, unlike its counterpart, White Birds on Pomegranate Tree (Day), 1915. Though pomegranates are absent, Capelari suggests the fruit by the shape of the birds. Perhaps this quiet and restful night scene depicts the birds fast asleep after a long day of feasting on the fruit.

Connoisseur's Note

White Birds on Pomegranate Tree (Night), 1915, is an exceedingly rare work. The great Kanto earthquake of 1923 destroyed the original Watanabe print shop and studio, the printing blocks for this design, and the unsold inventory. Only impressions of this design sold before and removed from Tokyo survived the earthquake and ensuing fires that consumed the city.

It is also remarkable to find the matching pair of this design, White Birds on Pomegranate Tree (Day), 1915, also available in this exhibition.