Koson: Skylark with peach blossom
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Ohara Koson (Shôson) (1877-1945)

A skylark (Alauda arvensis japonica) rising in the sky above the branches of a flowering peach tree against a blue sky.

Signature and seal: Shôson

Publisher: Watanabe, Tokyo (round 6-mm-seal)

Date: Undated (1931)

Original Japanese colour woodblock print. Size: Vertical Ôban, 36,3 x 24,2 cm (image)

Excellent crisp impression and colours, with vivid baren structure. Later impression from the original blocks, printed 1945-57. Full margins, paper a little bit age-toned. Verso at right margin two paper remnants from previous attachment and a trace of a removed small label in bottom. Verso at left margin minimally soiled. Overall very nice condition. Rare image.

Blair, Toledo Cat. 1936, no. 177. Ill. in Reigle Newland/Perrée/Schaap, Crows, Cranes and Camellias, The natural world of Ohara Koson 1877-1945, Leiden/Boston 2010, p. 207, S16.1.

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