Antique Japanese Watanabe Shotei Woodblock Print Ducks in Marsh Grass 18"H

Watanabe Shotei (渡辺省亭) Original Woodblock Print: Ducks in Marsh Grass, Meiji Era circa 1870's

Japan, Meiji period, circa 1870's. 15″W × 18″H (38 × 46 cm), framed

This is a Japanese woodblock print titled Ducks in Marsh Grass by Watanabe Shotei (渡辺省亭, 1851-1918), created circa 1870's, early in the artist's career and well before his celebrated years as a bird-and-flower (kachō-ga) specialist. The print depicts a pair of ducks nestled among wind-blown reeds and grasses, printed in ink with soft touches of color on the birds' heads and a graded wash suggesting distant misty hills.

Shotei trained under Kikuchi Yōsai and briefly with lacquer master Shibata Zeshin before becoming, in 1878, the first Nihonga-trained artist to live and study in Europe, where his work won a medal at the Paris International Exposition. He's remembered for fusing the Western naturalism he absorbed in Paris with the calligraphic discipline of his Japanese training, a synthesis that reshaped kachō-ga and influenced later Nihonga artists including Kaburagi Kiyokata.

The Honolulu Museum of Art holds an impression of this same design, Ducks in Marsh Grass, c. 1870.

Form: Japanese woodblock print, ink and color on paper, framed under glass
Construction or Decoration: Multi-block woodcut printing with hand-applied color; graded wash background
Mark: Artist's signature and seal, upper left
Period: Meiji period, circa 1870
Dimensions: 1⅛ × 8⅜ in. (28.3 × 21.3 cm) sheet size. 15″W × 18″H (38 × 46 cm), framed
Weight: ~1lbs
Condition: Light overall toning and scattered foxing spots; otherwise good color and crisp printing based on photos. Not examined outside the frame.
Flags: Framed dimensions given; sheet size not separately measured. Honolulu Museum's impression measures 11⅛ × 8⅜ in. (28.3 × 21.3 cm) sheet size