Elizabeth Keith (1887-1956)
Blue and White (Ai to Shiro), 1925
Woodblock print
Signed in pencil: 'Elizabeth Keith'
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo
Date: 1925
Signed in pencil: 'Elizabeth Keith'
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo
Date: 1925
40.3 x 29.7 cm. (15 ⅞ x 11 ¾ in.)
Very good impression with embossed details including on the ceramics, clothing and Hokusai print hanging on the wall. Minor fading and slight toning. There is a faint trace of matt-burn within the image. Typical pinhole at top left corner.
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Keith captures a moment on a hot summer’s day where an elegantly dressed woman holding a parasol and fan is browsing blue-and-white ceramics displayed in a shop window. The shopkeeper...
Keith captures a moment on a hot summer’s day where an elegantly dressed woman holding a parasol and fan is browsing blue-and-white ceramics displayed in a shop window. The shopkeeper meanwhile is binding a vine of morning glories to the pillar at the front of the shop using a ball of string. With the exception of the shopfront, the woman’s parasol handle and shoes, as well as the pink skin of the figures, the dominant colour of this composition is blue in various shades, somewhat reminiscent of Katsushika Hokusai’s iconic 1830s series ‘Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji’. Interestingly, displayed in a frame in the shop is an impression of Hokusai’s woodblock print “The Great Wave”, a masterpiece from the series.
Another impression of the same print is in the collection of The National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, accession no. 2020.224, go to:
https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/144767/