Landscape to City: A Collection of 20th Century Japanese Prints
Landscape to City: A Collection of 20th Century Japanese Prints
Lot Closed
November 18, 03:39 PM GMT
Estimate
1,000 - 1,500 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Hashimoto Okiie (1899-1993)
Old Castle in Sunset, the Keep of Hikone (Kojo shayo, Hikone-jo tenshu)
Showa period, 20th century
woodblock print, printed signature in Japanese to the right margin Hashimoto Okiie saku (made by Hashimoto Okiie), sealed Hashi, and signed in pencil in Roman script to the bottom margin Okiie Hashimoto, dated 1950, titled as above, numbered 16/50
59.7 x 80.3 cm., 23½ x 31⅝ in.
This design of Hikone Castle in the city of Hikone, Shiga Prefecture, is based closely on an eponymous watercolour painting executed in 1941. Hashimoto was proficient in watercolour and oil painting, as well as printmaking. Reverting back to this historic site throughout his career, Hashimoto displayed a fascination with the architecture of traditional Japanese buildings which are at the heart of his corpus.
For the original watercolour in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, reference number 1955.798, go to:
https://www.artic.edu/artworks/84190/watercolor-for-hikone-castle
Born in Tottori Prefecture, Hashimoto graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts as an art teacher in 1924. He worked as a teacher until 1955, creating art in his spare time. It was not until he retired from teaching that he became a full-time artist. He took to the print medium in 1936 after attending Hiratsuka Un'ichi's short course in woodblock printing in Tokyo. He exhibited at the Japanese Print Association for the first time in 1937 and his reputation continued to grow over the following decades. Japanese castles, gardens and landscapes were the predominant subjects of his work, however he went on to produce figure and floral subjects later in his career.
Many examples of his prints are in the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago, go to:
https://www.artic.edu/collection?artist_ids=Hashimoto%20Okiie
And also the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, go to:
https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections?q=Hashimoto+Okiie&sort=rank