Kawase Hasui (1883-1957)
A man under his umbrella walking in the evening snow towards a gatehouse in Shiba Park in Minato, Tokyo.
Watercolour on paper, the snowflakes applied with gofun white.
Title: Shiba kôen no yuki (Snow at Shiba Park) - handwritten in ink in the left margin
Signature: Hasui (hand-signed in ink at lower right margin)
Seal: Hangadô seal of the artist
Date: C. 1931-1957
Size: 42 x 31,2 cm (image), 48,5 x 37,2 cm (overall)
Original large watercolour painting by Hasui, with the Hangadô seal, which Hasui often used for his paintings. The strong paper a little bit browned, otherwise very good condition. Very rare.
The corresponding woodblock print for this image is the horizontal view with the same title, no. 244 in Brown's catalogue raisonné (Hotei) - here, however, with a slightly different angle of view and more subdued colours. Also, unlike in the woodblock print, the man here is wearing a modern umbrella and western clothes.
Hasui usually did not date his watercolours and paintings, therefore it is uncertain whether the painting was made before resp. around the time of the woodblock print or at a later date, since it is known that Hasui made and sold watercolours as an additional source of income in later years.
A number of other watercolours by Hasui are illustrated in Brown, Kawase Hasui, The complete woodblock prints (Amsterdam 2003), and in Brown, Water and Shadow, Kawase Hasui and Japanese Landscape Prints (Richmond, VA./Leiden 2014). A substantial body of watercolours from the collection of Robert O. Muller is also held by the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Asian Art (Freer/Sackler).
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