Keisei Eisen Art

"Thirsty: the appearance of a town geisha in the Ansei era" - Woodblock on Paper From the series "Thirty-two Aspects of Customs and Manners" (Fuzoku sanjuniso) Lively woodblock of a...

Kiyoshi Saitō (1907 – 1997) Maiko Kyoto (B) 1959, portrait of a girl facing left, with black and white obi; strong woodgrain texture background. Signature and artist’s seal lower left. Margins are covered with mat board possibly concealing title, date and edition. Visible Area: H 20.75 in. x W 15 in. Artist Biography: Kiyoshi Saito was born in Fukushima prefecture in 1907. At the age of five he moved to Otaru in Hokkaido, where he would come to serve as an apprentice to a sign painter. Saito became infatuated with art after studying drawing with Gyokusen Narita and moved to Tokyo in 1932 to study Western-style painting at the Hongo Painting Institute. He began experimenting with woodblock prints and exhibiting his works with Nihon Hanga Kyokai in 1936. Saito mainly worked in oil painting until his invitation from Tadashige Ono...

"Untitled (Girl Reading)" is an original wood engraving by the artist Stella Emma Harlos. A young girl rests on a large armchair, head resting on one hand as she reads a book. Image: 4" x 5" Frame: 12.12" x 13.18" Stella Harlos...

Edo Meisho woodblock print of a famous Japanese coastal dock. This woodblock is most likely apart of the series "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo." The woodblock print is printed on r...

A 1928 woodcut on paper of a self-portrait of Notable Chicago Modernist artist Emil Armin. artowrk size: 10 1/2" x 8". Archivally matted to: 12 1/2" x 14 1/2. Edition 7/30. Emil Armin was born in Radautz, Austria in 1883. By the age of 10, Armin was orphaned and was raised by his older siblings. He supported himself by working in restaurants and drew in his spare time. In 1905, at the age of 21, Armin immigrated to Chicago. He began studying at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1907, but financial difficulties forced him to start and stop a number of times, finally graduating in 1920. He studied with George Bellows and Randall Davey. Armin was an integral part of Chicago’s 57th Street Art Colony and exhibited in both the more avant-garde Chicago No-Jury Society Shows, as well as the more formal and conventional Chicago Society of Artists Exhibitions, the Chicago Renaissance Society and Art Institute of Chicago (1922-1949) exhibitions. He taught at Hull House...

This print is from a highly regarded series by the Edo woodblock artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi: in the period, there were at times prohibitions in depicting a...

Lynd Ward, 'Madman's Drum, Plate 41', wood engraving, 1930, edition small. Signed in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, on off-white tissue-thin Japan paper; the full sheet with margins (1 5/8 to 2 1/2 inches); a small paper blemish in the upper right margin, away from the image, otherwise in excellent condition. A scarce, artist-printed, hand-signed proof impression before the published edition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 5 1/2 x 3 3/4 inches (140 x 95 mm); sheet size 9 5/8 x 7 1/8 inches (244 x 181 mm). From Lynd Ward’s book of illustrations without words, 'Madman’s Drum', Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith, New York, 1930. Reproduced in 'Storyteller Without Words, the Wood Engravings of Lynd Ward', Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1974. ABOUT THE ARTIST Lynd Ward is acknowledged as one of America’s foremost wood engravers and book illustrators of the first half of the twentieth century. His innovative use of narrative printmaking as a stand-alone storytelling vehicle was uniquely successful in reaching a broad audience. The powerful psychological intensity of his work, celebrated for its dynamic design, technical precision, and compelling dramatic content, finds resonance in the literature of Poe, Melville, and Hawthorne. Like these classic American writers, Ward was concerned with the themes of man’s inner struggles and the role of the subconscious in determining his destiny. An artist of social conscience during the Great Depression and World War II, he infused his graphic images with his unique brand of social realism, deftly portraying the problems that challenged the ideals of American society. The son of a Methodist preacher, Lynd Ward, moved from Chicago to Massachusetts at an early age. He graduated from the Teachers College of Columbia University, New York, in 1926, where he studied illustration and graphic arts. He married May Yonge McNeer in 1936 and left for Europe for their honeymoon in Eastern Europe. After four months, they settled in Leipzig, where Ward studied at the National Academy of Graphic Arts and Bookmaking. Inspired by Belgian expressionist artist Frans Masereel's graphic novel ‘The Sun,’ and another graphic novel by the German artist Otto Nückel, ‘Destiny,’ he determined to create his own "wordless" novel. Upon his return to America, Ward completed his first book, ‘God's Man: A Novel in Woodcuts,’ published in 1929. ‘Gods’ Man’ was a great success for its author and publisher and was reprinted four times in 1930, including a British edition. This book and several which followed it, ‘Madman’s Drum,’ 1930, ‘Wild Pilgrimage...

GUSTAVE BAUMANN (1881 – 1971) THE WAGON SHOP, 1910 (Chamberlain 24) Color woodcut signed in pencil. Unnumbed from an edition 100 as published in the Hills o’ Brown...

The Battle of Dan-no-ura in Yashima, Nagato Province in the First Year of the Bunji Era (1185) Tokyo c. 1830 Woodblock print (nishiki-e) with ink and hand-coloring in watercolor on handmade mulberry paper, 14 7/16 x 9 15/16 inches (367 x 252 mm), ōban tate-e, the full sheet. In good condition with some handling creases. Colors are fresh and extremely vibrant. The right panel from the triptych by Yoshitora depicting one of Japan's most storied naval battles. An impression of this work may be found in the permanent collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art. The great naval battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185 was the final climax in a long series of bitter wars between two powerful families in feudal Japan...

"Lady Holding a Baby" - Woodblock Print on Laid Rice Paper Elegant woodcut print by Stephen White (American, b. 1939). In an early example of White's signature style, a stylized, mi...

SADAO WATANABE (Japanese 1913-1996) JONAH, 1959 Color stencil, signed, numbered and dated in white ink. Sheet, 25 5/8 x 22 5/8 inches. Edition: 44/50. Good color and generally good ...

The print 'Jones Island' is something of a self portrait. In the image, an artist stands before and easel, depicting the docks and buildings on the coast. The title indicates that this is Jones Island in Milwaukee, the peninsula along Lake Michigan that today is home to largely industrial buildings. The buildings and figures in the print suggest that this might be a view of the last of the Kashubian or German immigrant settlements on the peninsula before they were evicted in the 1940s to make way for the development of the harbor. The artist in the image thus acts as a documentarian of these peoples. The careful line-work of the woodblock engraving adds a sense of expressionism to the scene, leaving the figures and buildings looking distraught and dirty, though the image nonetheless falls into the Social Realist category that dominated American artists during the Great Depression. This print was published in 1936 as part of the Wisconsin Artists' Calendar for the year 1937, which included 52 original, hand-made prints – one for each week of the year. 6 x 5 inches, image 10 x 7.13 inches, sheet 13.43 x 12.43 inches, frame Signed "GS" in the print block,upper left Entitled "Jones Island" lower left (covered by matting) Inscribed "Wood Engraving" lower center (covered by matting) Artist name "Gerrit V. Sinclair" lower right (covered by matting) Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting and museum glass, all housed in a silver gilded moulding. Gerrit Sinclair studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1910 - 1915, under Vanderpoel, Norton, and Walcott. In World War I, he served in the Army Ambulance Corps and later recorded his experiences in a series of oil paintings. He taught in Minneapolis before arriving in Milwaukee in 1920 to become a member of the original faculty of the Layton School of Art. He was also a member of the Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors. Sinclair's paintings and drawings were executed in a lyrical, representational style, usually expressing a mood rather than a narrative. His paintings reveal a great sensitivity for color and atmosphere. His subject matter focused on cityscapes, industrial valleys, and working-class neighborhoods, captured from eye-level. A decade before the popularity of Regionalism, Sinclair's strong interest in the community was reflected not only in his paintings, but also in his encouragement to students to return to their communities as artists and teachers. Joseph Friebert...