KYOSAI Kawanabe. (1831-1889)
Crow on a Branch. c.1901.
- Category
- Japanese | 20th Century
- Publisher
octagonal fan print, 22.2 cm × 28.4 cm
Very good impression, colour and condition. A centrefold which is common with fan prints.
This octagonal kacho-ga (bird and flower) design would have been pasted on to an uchiwa fan for decoration. Kyosai's style is reminiscent of the painter Maruyama Okyo (1733-1795) and the technique mokkotsu, when ink washes rather than contour lines are used to describe form.
Kyosai was an extraordinary draughtsman. At an exhibition in 1877, he sent a simple painting of a crow with an extortionate price tag. Kyosai explained that "it was not the price of a common crow, but a small fraction of the price of the fifty years of study that had enabled him to dash off his picture in this manner." With superb skill, the printers and engravers have recreated an impression of comparable spontaneous aplomb. Signed Kyosai with the artist's seal.
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