HIROSHI YOSHIDA: CHANGGYEONGGUNG PALACE, SEOUL
HIROSHI YOSHIDA: CHANGGYEONGGUNG PALACE, SEOUL
By Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950), signed Yoshida and sealed Hiroshi
Japan, dated 1937
Color woodblock print on paper. Horizontal oban. Signed Yoshida and sealed Hiroshi, Jizuri (self-printed) seal to the left margin, further signed in Roman script to the outer-lower margin Hiroshi Yoshida. Title Shokkei Kyu (Changgyeonggung Palace, Seoul), inscribed with the English title “Shokei Palace” in Roman script to the outer-lower margin.
People dressed in traditional Korean attire stand inside Changgyeonggung Palace in Seoul, with an open door revealing a lush green and pink thicket. In the foreground, a group of women gathers near a wooden staircase, while others sit and interact beside two large columns.
SIZE of the sheet 26 x 39.4 cm, SIZE incl. frame 44.7 x 57.5 cm
Provenance: From a private collection in California, United States, acquired in 1950. The frame with an inscribed label to the back, “Artist: Hiroshi Yoshida, Subject: The Shokei Palace, Series: Korean, Dated: 1937, Print Number: 210, Acquired: 1953 Y 200, No. blocks: 10, No. impressions 54, Remarks: Many flat tone blocks”
Condition: Excellent impression and condition. The top outer margin with stained adhesive residue from previous mounting to the front and back and a small loss to the top-right corner, all not affecting the image.
With a wooden frame and glass for presentation.
The jizuri seal is the most important mark on a Hiroshi Yoshida print as it helps distinguish an early edition where the printing process was directly supervised by him. Jizuri means "self-printed" and indicates that Hiroshi Yoshida played an active role in the printing process of the respective print. Hiroshi focused heavily on developing prints of the highest quality and normally only the prints with the best impressions received his jizuri seal.
Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) began his artistic training with his adoptive father in Kurume, Fukuoka prefecture. Around the age of twenty, he left Kurume to study with Soritsu Tamura in Kyoto, subsequently moving to Tokyo and the tutelage of Shotaro Koyama. Yoshida studied Western-style painting, winning many exhibition prizes, and making several trips to the United States, Europe and North Africa selling his watercolors and oil paintings. While highly successful as an oil painter and watercolor artist, Hiroshi Yoshida turned to woodblock printmaking upon learning of the Western world’s infatuation with ukiyo-e. While widely traveled and knowledgeable of Western aesthetics, he maintained an allegiance to traditional Japanese techniques and traditions.
Auction comparison:
Compare a closely related print, also with the jizuri seal, at Christie’s, From Artist to Woodblock: Japanese Prints Online, 29 September 2021, New York, lot 170 (sold for USD 2,125 or approx.
EUR 2,200 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).
Buyer's Premium
30%
HIROSHI YOSHIDA: CHANGGYEONGGUNG PALACE, SEOUL
By Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950), signed Yoshida and sealed Hiroshi
Japan, dated 1937
Color woodblock print on paper. Horizontal oban. Signed Yoshida and sealed Hiroshi, Jizuri (self-printed) seal to the left margin, further signed in Roman script to the outer-lower margin Hiroshi Yoshida. Title Shokkei Kyu (Changgyeonggung Palace, Seoul), inscribed with the English title “Shokei Palace” in Roman script to the outer-lower margin.
People dressed in traditional Korean attire stand inside Changgyeonggung Palace in Seoul, with an open door revealing a lush green and pink thicket. In the foreground, a group of women gathers near a wooden staircase, while others sit and interact beside two large columns.
SIZE of the sheet 26 x 39.4 cm, SIZE incl. frame 44.7 x 57.5 cm
Provenance: From a private collection in California, United States, acquired in 1950. The frame with an inscribed label to the back, “Artist: Hiroshi Yoshida, Subject: The Shokei Palace, Series: Korean, Dated: 1937, Print Number: 210, Acquired: 1953 Y 200, No. blocks: 10, No. impressions 54, Remarks: Many flat tone blocks”
Condition: Excellent impression and condition. The top outer margin with stained adhesive residue from previous mounting to the front and back and a small loss to the top-right corner, all not affecting the image.
With a wooden frame and glass for presentation.
The jizuri seal is the most important mark on a Hiroshi Yoshida print as it helps distinguish an early edition where the printing process was directly supervised by him. Jizuri means "self-printed" and indicates that Hiroshi Yoshida played an active role in the printing process of the respective print. Hiroshi focused heavily on developing prints of the highest quality and normally only the prints with the best impressions received his jizuri seal.
Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) began his artistic training with his adoptive father in Kurume, Fukuoka prefecture. Around the age of twenty, he left Kurume to study with Soritsu Tamura in Kyoto, subsequently moving to Tokyo and the tutelage of Shotaro Koyama. Yoshida studied Western-style painting, winning many exhibition prizes, and making several trips to the United States, Europe and North Africa selling his watercolors and oil paintings. While highly successful as an oil painter and watercolor artist, Hiroshi Yoshida turned to woodblock printmaking upon learning of the Western world’s infatuation with ukiyo-e. While widely traveled and knowledgeable of Western aesthetics, he maintained an allegiance to traditional Japanese techniques and traditions.
Auction comparison:
Compare a closely related print, also with the jizuri seal, at Christie’s, From Artist to Woodblock: Japanese Prints Online, 29 September 2021, New York, lot 170 (sold for USD 2,125 or approx.
EUR 2,200 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).
Buyer's Premium
30%
