Hiroshi Yoshida

1876-1950

The United States Series: Niagara Falls
(Beikoku shirizu: Naiagura bakufu)

signed in sumi ink Yoshida with artist's seal Hiroshi, with red jizuri (self-printed) seal on left margin, followed by the date Taisho juyonen saku (made in Taisho 14 [1925]), followed by the Japanese title, Naiagura bakufu, titled and signed in penciled English on the bottom margin, Niagara Falls, Hiroshi Yoshida

dai oban yoko-e 11 1/8 by 16 in., 28.1 by 40.5 cm

In 1924 Yoshida was involved with a traveling exhibition of paintings and prints in America which was organized in an effort to support those artists who were struggling in the aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake that devasted Tokyo on September 1st in the previous year. Upon his return to Japan in January of 1925, Yoshida established his own printing studio and began production woodblock prints, starting with a series based on compositions from the United States. Already an accomplished and versatile painter, Yoshida loved to explore the variations and gradations of color that could be achieved in the woodblock print format. On this impression of Niagara Falls, Yoshida contrasts layers light and dark blue swirls of water in the foreground against the soft pink mist drifting upwards towards tufts of pale cotton candy pink and lavender clouds.

References:
Tadao Ogura, Yoshida Hiroshi zenhangashu (The Complete Woodblock Prints of Hiroshi Yoshida), Abe Shuppan, Tokyo, 1987, p. 40, no. 12
Carolyn Putney, et al., Fresh Impressions: Early Modern Japanese Prints, Toledo Museum of Art, 2013, p. 286, cat. 292

(inv. no. 10-3625)

price: Sold