This serene and masterfully painted Asian watercolor and gouache of an owl in the moonlight was painted around 1900 by Toshio Aoki (1854-1912), a Japanese artist in California. He was one of a small number of Japanese artists who produced paintings in the course of sustained interaction with Western viewers outside of Japan. Because of his involvement with California's Japonisme aesthetic movement and other local trends, his paintings differ from purely Japanese paintings and those produced in the European Japonisme movement. I believe that this difference is a dynamic sense of Western composition mixed with the elegant balance associated with the Japanese Masters. The image size is 20"x13", and the gold bamboo-style frame is 25"x18". Toshio Aoki immigrated from Yokohama to San Francisco in the 1880's and was a respected part of the cultural scene in California. He died in San Diego in 1912. He was an artist and illustrator, and an organizer of "Oriental" parties and events for those on the social register. He exhibited in the Japanese collection at the World's Fair Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. His paintings are now being re-discovered and are entering museum collections for the first time. This painting is framed in acid-free materials. It is in good condition, with mild foxing. A similarly framed T. Aoki painting is Item ID: 4139AUT Item ID: 4140AUT

Excellent. See description for eventual details.