Okuhara Seiko (1837-1913) attr.
Two birds sitting on a blooming cherry tree branch, gazing at each other.
Signature: Seiko 静湖
Seal: Seiko 静湖
Publisher: (Matsuki Heikichi, Daikokuya)
Date: around 1910
Size: Shikishiban, 23,9 x 24,7 cm (overall dimension)
Early state. Very fine impression and colours, with embossing. Verso on upper corners stain and remnants of prior attachment, only slightly visible from the front side. Overall very nice condition.
Usually this and other bird depictions with the same signature and seal (notwithstanding different writing of the first character) are attributed to the famous woman painter Okuhara Seiko (cf. British Museum, MFA Boston, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam a.o.).
Merritt and Yamada (Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints, p. 133) do not make any attribution. For a possible attribution to Watanabe Seitei (1851-1918) see Neumann and Schaap (in Andon No. 76).
Cf. Freer Sackler, Robert O. Muller Collection, No. S2003.8.2125 (showing a later impression)
sold