Koson: Mallard ducks in the snow
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Koson: Mallard ducks in the snow
Move your mouse over image or click to enlarge

Koson: Mallard ducks in the snow
Move your mouse over image or click to enlarge

Ohara Koson (1877-1945)

Mallards in the Snow - Original Painting with Hanshita-e Drawing and Colour Woodblock Print

A pair of mallard ducks on the waterside in the snow, in the foreground snow-covered reeds.

  1. Original, fully executed fine painting by the artist. Ink, watercolours and some gofun white on silk, signed and sealed Koson. Size: 50 x 24 cm (overall).
    Mounted at corners and right margin into in a thin collector’s matting. Very good condition.
  2. Original ink drawing of the black and grey parts for the block carver (hanshita-e), on thin paper, signed Koson. Size: 51 x 27 cm (overall). Attached at the corners on a sheet of strong paper, which is mounted in a thin collector's matting. Very good condition.
  3. Original colour woodblock print, signed and sealed Koson. Publisher Matsuki Heikichi, Tokyo, c. 1910-20. Size: Ôtanzaku (Mitsugiriban), 34.6 x 18.9 cm (image). Early impression, fine impression and colours, with some gofun white in the plumage. Beautiful visible wood grain. Untrimmed. Paper a little age-toned. Excellent condition.

This set in: Hiraki Ukiyo-e bijutsukan (Hiraki Ukiyo-e Museum of Art), Obara Koson no Sekai. Seiyô de aisareta kachô-ga (The world of Obara Koson: Images of birds and flowers beloved in the West), Yokohama 1998, no. 28.
Ill. in Reigle Newland/Perrée/Schaap, Crows, Cranes and Camellias, The natural world of Ohara Koson 1877-1945, Leiden/Boston 2010, no. K 7.7 and p. 61, cat. no. 35. with a reference to the preserved drawing and painting. For the print cf. Freer Sackler Muller Coll., no. S2003.8.1926 (dating questionable); Rijksmuseum, Perrée Coll., no. RP-P-1999-403.
Remarkably, the painting and the ink drawing are almost as large as Koson's earliest bird paintings in the Naga-Ôban format, printed ca. 1900 by Kokkeidô (Akiyama Buemon).
Provenance: Trudel Klefisch Collection

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