The art of Hasui Kawase, 1883–1957

kawase18.jpg

For the past few months I’ve been nurturing a desire to create one or more pieces of art in the ukiyo-e style, not bona fide woodblock prints—I don’t have the materials or the experience—but something that imitates the general look of such things. Other commitments have so far prevented my attempting anything but I keep browsing the work of the print-makers with an eye on the future. Hasui Kawase is very useful in this respect since he was one of the first Japanese artists to combine traditional subjects and print-making techniques with a graphic style influenced by Western art. The views and compositions are often familiar ones but there’s a greater sense of pictorial realism, especially in the treatment of light and shade which is exceptionally skilful. I especially like his nocturnes. Kawase was a very prolific artist so there’s a lot to see, Ukiyo-e.org has over 3,000 of his prints on file. Many of these will be duplicates but that’s still a lot of work.

kawase14.jpg

This is a necessarily limited selection from the collection of Kawase prints at Wikimedia Commons. The quality of his work is so good you could easily make several posts like this one. For those who’d like to see more, two high-resolution print collections, here and here, are a good place to start.

kawase13.jpg

kawase17.jpg

kawase02.jpg

kawase16.jpg

kawase01.jpg

kawase15.jpg

kawase03.jpg

kawase06.jpg

kawase07.jpg

kawase08.jpg

kawase09.jpg

kawase10.jpg

kawase11.jpg

kawase12.jpg

Previously on { feuilleton }
Nineteen views of Zen gardens
Ten views of the Itsukushima Shrine
Charles Bartlett’s prints
Sixteen views of Meoto Iwa
Waves and clouds
Yoshitoshi’s ghosts
Japanese moons
The Hell Courtesan
Nocturnes
Henri Rivière’s Eiffel Tower

Discover more from { feuilleton }

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading