This woodblock print is a design by Maruyama Ōkyo 円山応挙 (1733-1795), originally executed as a painting, but adapted to print form by Fukui Gessai and published by Aoki Sūzandō 青木嵩山堂 in 1894. It is part of a small album called Kinsei meika shubi gafu (近世名家聚美画譜) (An Album of Collected Beauty by Modern Masters), a set of 24 woodblock-prints after Shijo-school artists.
The Woodblock Print
This roughly chuban-sized woodblock is in excellent condition. The print has good colors, nice registry, no discolorations, intact margins and a clean verso.
About the Artists
Fukui Gessai was a painter and print artist. Born in Edo, he studied in Kyoto with Kano Eishō. After moving to Osaka, he did reproductions of historical paintings of various periods for a series of publications issued by Aoki Sūzandō in the 1890s.
Maruyama Okyo was a famous painter of the Edo era. Okyo was a farmer’s son who went to Kyoto to train with the Kano master Ishida Yutei (1721-86), and became a popular and extremely influential artist as well as the founder of a major new painting school. He specialized in a close observation of nature.
