Hiroshi Yoshida

1876-1950

Packhorse Driver
(Mago)

sumi ink and color on paper; signed with kakihan Hiroshi and one seal Yoshida Hiroshi in, ca. 1910s

painting 51 1/8 by 11 3/4 in., 130 by 30 cm
overall 77 1/2 by 16 3/4 in., 197 by 42.5 cm

This composition is similar to a Yoshida painting titled, Packhorse at the Riverside, illustrated in the 2016 Chiba City Museum of Art exhibition catalog which they date to the Meiji Period. The style and subject are typical of Yoshida's work from the time he returned to Japan from his second trip abroad in 1907 through the 1910s. Packhorses and their drivers were of course an essential component of his annual climbing trips in the Japanese alps and make a frequent appearance in his related paintings. In 1922 Yoshida designed a woodblock print with the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo (1885-1962) titled The Horse Turnback at Umagaeshi featuring climbers and packhorses with their drivers.

Provenance:
Paul Binnie (woodblock print artist, b. 1967)

Reference:
Chiba City Museum of Art, Yoshida Hiroshi: A Retrospective, 2016, pp. 119-120, nos. 3-46 (Packhorse at the Riverside), 3-47 (Climbing Mt. Fuji), and 3-48 (Mountain Climbing)

(inv. no. C-3845)

price: $3,800