Egenolf Gallery Japanese Art

"Early Summer Horse Fair" from 53 Stations of the Tokaido Woodblock print of a group of horses, originally by Hiroshige (Ando) Utagawa (Japanese, 1797 - 1858). Several groups of hor...

"Toy Horse Dance" Japanese Woodblock Triptych with Beauties and Mt Fuji Vibrant three-panel woodblock print by Utagawa Toyohiro (Japanese,...

Two Actors - Japanese Woodblock by Toyohara Chikanobu (豊原周延, 1838–1912), better known to his contemporaries as Yōshū Chikanobu (楊洲周延). Colorful and expressive court scene. Two actors...

"Grave of Santa Anna's Leg" Original Woodblock Print, Signed Artist's Proof Boldly colored woodblock print by Carol Summers (American, 1925-2016). This piece is a segment of a grave, with a headstone that has a skull and cross. There are two bright green plants flanking the headstone. Below the headstone and plants, there is a large arched blue shape, with a crescent moon and stars. A red leg, bent at the knee, cuts across the blue arch. Signed "Carol Summers" along the right edge of the blue shape. Numbered and titled "A/P Grave of Sant Anna's Leg" along the left edge of the blue shape. Presented in a silver colored aluminum frame. Frame size: 32.245"H x 27.25"W Paper size: 29.75"H x 24.5"W Carol Summers (1925-2016) has worked as an artist throughout the second half of the 20th century and into the first years of the next, outliving most of his mid-century modernist peers. Initially trained as a painter, Summers was drawn to color woodcuts around 1950 and it became his specialty thereafter. Over the years he has developed a process and style that is both innovative and readily recognizable. His art is known for it’s large scale, saturated fields of bold color, semi-abstract treatment of landscapes from around the world and a luminescent quality achieved through a printmaking process he invented. In a career that has extended over half a century, Summers has hand-pulled approximately 245 woodcuts in editions that have typically run from 25 to 100 in number. His talent was both inherited and learned. Born in 1925 in Kingston, a small town in upstate New York, Summers was raised in nearby Woodstock with his older sister, Mary. His parents were both artists who had met in art school in St. Louis. During the Great Depression, when Carol was growing up, his father supported the family as a medical illustrator until he could return to painting. His mother was a watercolorist and also quite knowledgeable about the different kinds of papers used for various kinds of painting. Many years later, Summers would paint or print on thinly textured paper originally collected by his mother. From 1948 to 1951, Carol Summers trained in the classical fine and studio arts at Bard College and at the Art Students League of New York. He studied painting with Steven Hirsh and printmaking with Louis Schanker. He admired the shapes and colors favored by early modernists Paul Klee (Sw: 1879-1940) and Matt Phillips (Am: b.1927- ). After graduating, Summers quit working as a part-time carpenter and cabinetmaker (which had supported his schooling and living expenses) to focus fulltime on art. That same year, an early abstract, Bridge No. 1 was selected for a Purchase Prize in a competition sponsored by the Brooklyn Museum. In 1952, his work (Cathedral, Construction and Icarus) was shown the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in an exhibition of American woodcuts...

Shin-machi Bridge at Hodogaya - Japanese Woodcut Print on Rice Paper Woodblock print of travelers on a bridge by Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797-185...

Hokuto Tamamura (1893-1951), 'The Spirit of the Wine' (Shuten Dōji) - from Dai Chikamatsu Zenshu (The Complete Works of Chikamatsu)', color woodblock, 1923-26. Signed 'Hokuto'. A fin...

Japanese Original Woodblock Print Harunobu Suzuki (né Hozumi) (Japanese, 1724 - 1770) Presented in a black mat. Mat: 16"H x 12"W Paper: 12"H x 9"W I...

Matsuno Sofu (1899-1963), 'Hagoromo - Noh', woodblock print, 1937. Signed 'Sofu' with the artist's seal, lower right. A fine impression, with fresh color...

Mitate of a Daimyo's Procession Crossing Ryogoku Bridge - Woodblock Print Woodblock print of a procession by Keisai Eisen (Japanese, 1790–1848). Terrific triptych of a procession of...

Hajime Namiki, 'Weeping Cherry 16 A', color woodblock print, 2012, edition 200. Signed in pencil with the artist’s red seal. Titled, dated, and numbered ...

Lou Barlow (Louis Breslow), 'On the Beach' (Coney Island) wood engraving, c. 1937, edition c. 25. Signed and titled in pencil. Stamped 'FEDERAL ART PROJECT NYC WPA' in the bottom left margin. A fine, richly-inked impression, with all the fine lines printing clearly, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/2 to 3 inches), in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Scarce. Image size 11 x 8 1/8 inches; sheet size 16 x 11 3/8 inches. Created during the Great Depression for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Federal Art Project, New York City. Impressions of this work are in the permanent collections of the Amon Carter Museum of Art, Illinois State Museum, and the New York Public Library. ABOUT THE IMAGE Due to Coney Island's proximity to Manhattan, Brooklyn, and other New York boroughs, it began attracting vacationers in the 1830s and 1840s. Most of the vacationers were wealthy and went by carriage roads and steamship services that reduced travel time from a formerly half-day journey to two hours. By the late 1870s, the development of Coney Island's amusement park attractions and hotels drew people from all social classes. When the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company electrified the steam railroads and connected Brooklyn to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge at the beginning of the 20th century, Coney Island turned rapidly from a resort to an accessible location for day-trippers seeking to escape the summer heat in New York City's tenements. In 1915, the Sea Beach Line was upgraded to a subway line, and the opening of the Stillwell Avenue station in 1919 ushered in Coney Island's busiest era. On the peak summer days, over a million people would travel to Coney Island. In 1937, New York City purchased a 400-foot-wide strip of land along the shoreline to allow the boardwalk to be moved 300 feet inland. At this point, Coney Island was so crowded on summer weekends that parks commissioner Robert Moses...

Study of Utagawa Hiroshige's "View of Hara-Juku" 53 Stations of the Tokaido Road Hand painted study of Utagawa Hiroshige's "View of Hara-Juku", (by unknown artist), from "53 Station...