ELIZABETH KEITH (1887-1956) WOODBLOCK, SCARCE, ORIGINAL, NO RESERVE!

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We started this as a buy it now but since so many of you were watching and asking, we have relisted in our standard format of $25 first bid with no reserve. Elizabeth Keith (1887-1956). Description: A rare woodblock from this highly collected artist. Title: East Gate, Pyeng Yang, Korea. Artist: Keith, Elizabeth, 1887-1956 . Date: 1925 . Dimensions: 12 1/4 x 17 5/8 inches Illustrated: Keith, pl. 59 Shipping: Please note that the woodblock is framed in a very large frame but one that can be used to great effect. Cost of shipping with the current frame is roughly $100.00 in the US. We can't ship with the frame outside of the US as it is too large. The woodblock can also be shipped without the frame in the US and shipping would run around $30.00. Please do not pay until you decide what you would like and we send a final invoice.Elizabeth Keith was born in Scotland and raised in London. We have no record of her having formal training in the arts. In 1915 she joined her sister in Japan and stayed for nine years. It was a fruitful period for Keith as she sketched in pencil and watercolors during her travels in Japan, China, Korea, and the Philippines.In 1919 an exhibition in Tokyo of her watercolors on Korean subjects caught the attention of the central figure of the shin hanga movement, the publisher Watanabe, who soon had his studio craftsmen translate her 'East Gate, Seoul, by Moonlight' into a color woodblock print (see figure at right). It would become one of her most sought-after and admired images.Watanabe continued to publish her prints until 1939. She returned to England in 1924, but continued to travel throughout her life, producing studies for prints that would number at least 113 designs (100 were color woodblock prints, the remainder color etchings). Her published prints are consistently professional and always well printed. At her best she combined anecdotal and documentary elements with a highly developed sense of color, compassion for her subjects, and a keen eye for detail."East Gate, Seoul, by Moonlight" was issued in an edition of only 30 and has become quite scarce today. It is signed in pencil at the lower right and includes the artist's "EK" monogram. It depicts an imposing gate (called Hunginjimun, the "Gate of Uplifting Mercy") in the ancient city wall. The deep, rich blue in this print represents, in only their inaugural effort, a notable achievement of the Keith-Watanabe collaboration. In the case of "East Gate" it created an crepuscular atmosphere, as the artist captured the nuances of soft moonlight and shadow.Impressions vary from more somber, darker blue skies to lighter skies representing early evening. In some impressions the grass on the wall at the lower right of the gate is a strong green. Sprinkled mica was also used in the eaves of the main roof. Keith took special notice of the texture in the stone wall and Watanabe's craftsmen were equal to the task, using the 'baren' (the circular printing pad) to produce faint swirls in the pattern (called baren sujizuri, or "baren traces printing") and blotchy application of the colors (called tatakizuri, printing by tapping with a cloth loaded with pigment) in the stones to mimic the rough surface [see figure at left]. It is a print of stillness and timelessness, one of the early masterpieces of shin hanga by a western artist.After leaving Japan in 1924 (she returned twice, in 1932 and 1936), Keith studied etching techniques in France. She produced etchings as early as 1924 and as late as 1938. Perhaps her finest color etching is shown in the figure on the immediate right, known as "The Chinese Matriarch."Published in 1934 in an edition of only 25, it was based on a watercolor study from 1919 in which a Buddhist nun posed in a finer coat than the one depicted in the etching. It is signed in pencil in the lower right margin. One is reminded of the celebrated color-print achievements of the impressionist Mary Cassatt, not in sensibility or even technique (Cassatt used soft ground etching, drypoint, and aqu... read more

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