KOBAYASHI, Eijiro–”A High Bridge by Night”
The Night Scenes is a series of 21 woodcut prints by Japanese artists published by Hasegawa/Nishinomiya in the early 1900s. Gorgeous work, and apparently popular enough for the prints to have been reissued many times since. These examples are from a print-selling site with several extensive galleries of 20th-century Japanese prints.
The High Bridge at Night struck me for being remarkably similar to Whistler’s famous painting of Old Battersea Bridge, Nocturne: Blue and Gold (1872–75). Whistler, of course, developed his mature style through looking at Japanese prints, and the Tate’s note for his painting says it may have been derived from a Hiroshige print. The Hiroshige looks nothing like the High Bridge at Night, however; was the latter based on an earlier print which Whistler had seen, or is the High Bridge (which post-dates Whistler’s painting) an example of the Japanese stealing back some of their influence from the West?
(Thanks to Wood s Lot for the prints tip.)
ARAI, Yoshimune II–”A Ferry Boat”
KOBAYASHI, Eijiro–”A Pagoda by Moonlight”
SHODA, Koho–”A Country Scene (with Moon)”
ARAI, Yoshimune II–”Suma Beach in Moonlight”
SHODA, Koho–”Married Rocks”
SHODA, Koho–”Shrine Gate at Miyajima”
SHODA, Koho–”Moonlit Sea”
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Whistler’s Peacock Room revisited
Very beautiful. Thanks for posting this.