Japanese Woodblock Print, 1958, 1st edition, pencil numbered 20/100, dated and signed in the block

SIZE IN INCHES: oban, 15 x 11 inches

MAEDA MASAO (1904-1974) was born in Hakodate, island of Hokkaido, and met Hiratsuka Un'ichi, a leader of the sosaku hanga print movement, there in 1923. He moved to Tokyo in 1925 and joined the private Kawabata Painting School, moving on to more thoroughly study Western-style painting (yoga) with Umehara Ryuzauro (1888-1986), who knew Hiratsuka. At first he painted in oils, but by associating with Hiratsuka in the so-called Yoyogi Group (print artists who gathered at Hiratsuka's house in the Yoyogi district of Tokyo in the 1930s) and in the Kokuga-kai (National Painting Association) he learned woodblock techniques and began to make and exhibit prints in the 1930s. In 1940 he turned exclusively to prints. He was a member of Onichi Koshiro's (1891-1955), another leader of the sosaku hanga print movement, Ichimoku-kai (First Thursday Society). He contributed to One Hundred New Views of Japan (1940), the two Kitsutsuki Hanga-shu collections (1942-3) and nos 3-6 of the Ichimokushu collections (1947-50), as well as Scenes of Lost Tokyo (1945) and Nihon Minzoku Zufu (1946). He was publicized by Oliver Statler in his book Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: An Art Reborn (1956). A typical sosaku hanga group artist in many ways, Maeda nevertheless showed untypically the influence of Nihonga native-style painting. He also produced fine mountain scenes a little in the vein of Umetaro Azechi (1902-1999).

Public collections with works by Maeda Masao include the Art Institute of Chicago; British Museum, London; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Chiba City Art Museum; Harvard Art Museum; Honolulu Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Art, Boston; Portland Art Museum; and Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art.

VG with flaws as shown