Property from a Private Collector
Keisai Eisen (1790-1848) | The Eitai Bridge (Eitai bashi) | Edo period, 19th century
Lot Closed
March 24, 02:28 PM GMT
Estimate
2,400 - 3,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Private Collector
Keisai Eisen (1790-1848)
The Eitaibashi Bridge (Eitai bashi)
Edo period, 19th century
woodblock print, from an untitled series of Famous Places in Edo with Frames of Western Letters, published by Ezakiya Kichibei (Tenjudo), circa early 1830s
Horizontal oban: 25.2 x 37.7 cm., 10 x 14⅞ in.
Constructed in 1696, the Eitaibashi Bridge is shown at a distance arching over the Sumida River beside a snow-capped Mount Fuji. On the horizon tall, distinctive clouds rise like towers of smoke. The whole view of the Sumida river is rendered in an exaggerated sense of perspective, a Western import primarily reaching domestic artists in the form of the Dutch copper-plate etching, then circulating in Japan from the trading ports of Nagasaki and Yokohama. Modified Roman letters frame the landscape to further accent the sense of Occidentalism the view is encouraged to invoke.
For another impression in the collection of the Edo-Tokyo Museum, collection ID 90207439, go to:
